Lesson 10: Spanish verbs, the future and more on Tener (to have)

Question 1

How do you know if something is a verb

Answer 1

So a better general rule is “if you can stick ‘to’ in front of the word then it’s a verb” - to be, to stay, to go, etc.

And, as I said above, in Spanish they will always end in ‘ar’, ‘er’ or ‘ir’ when they are in their ‘to’ form:

to ventilate (ventilar)
to know (saber)
to come (venir)

Question 2

• [ ] What does ‘crear’ mean

Answer 2

To create.

My tip
Create is a nice one to know because when you say “Creo” you can also mean “I think” and ‘thinking’ as a creative process so a good hook here is to remember ‘Creo’ as ‘creating in the mind’.

Question 3

• [ ] How do you say ‘late’ in Spanish

Answer 3

This means late

We can remember this from the English word “Tardy” meaning “delaying or delayed beyond the right or expected time; late” - e.g. “please forgive this tardy reply”.

Question 4

• [ ] How do you use the present tense to talk about the future

Answer 4

Using the present tense to talk about the future
This concept is true in English and in Spanish - “I’m eating tomorrow”. “I am eating” is present tense but by adding a point in time (“tomorrow”) we make this sound like the future tense.

Spanish English
Como mañana I’m eating tomorrow
Como con Pablo mañana I’m eating with Pablo

Question 5

What does this mean ‘más tarde’

Answer 5

OK! That last one was new! ‘Más tarde’ means later but it actually means (literally) “more late” … so now you know the Spanish word for “more”!

Question 6

How do you say to have

Answer 6

Tener

Question 7

Where else is the word ‘tener’

Answer 7

It actually pops up in lots of Spanish words just as “tain” pops up in lots of English words.

Just a quick note on that last one - ‘Entretener’ is actually made up of two words ‘entre’ and ‘tener’. ‘Entre’ means “in between” so ‘entretener’ more literally means “between having”!

Question 8

How is possession shown in Spanish

Answer 8

In English we say things like “I have” and “It is mine” and “It belongs to me”. It is a one way relationship. Other languages don’t have this in them and in Spanish we see a middle ground which suggests a two way relationship.

Yes, you can have something - ‘Tener’ but with the word appearing inside othe words like ‘Sostener’ and ‘mantener’ it reminds us that objects also owns us. In order to keep an object we must sustain and maintain it so in some ways it posseses us because we must to things in order to keep “having” it.

Question 9

Is ‘to have ‘ in Spanish regular or irregular

Answer 9

irregular verb.

There are actually very few irregular verbs in Spanish but generally speaking those verbs which are used the most are the more irregular ones and the way they are irregular is mostly regular!

So “I have” should be ‘Teno’ but it is actually ‘Tengo’.