Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word tener. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word tener, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say tener in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word tener you have here. The definition of the word tener will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition oftener, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
1940, Gren Rabino David Berman, La boz de Türkiye, numbers 11–34, page 85:
Es la Boz del Chofar que nos combida a elevarnos mas arriva de las mesquinerias de la vida de cada dia, de nuestras vanedades pueriles(mesquinas), de nuestras ideas yerradas, siegas y malechoras de la animalidad, que, a nuestra grande verguensa, nosotros tenemos tanta pena a dominar.
It is the voice of the chofer that invites us to elevate ourselves above the narrow-mindedness of everyday life, of our puerile (and narrow-minded) vanities, of our mistaken ideas, blind and criminal from the beastliness that, to our great shame, we have so much trouble dominating.
1982, Enrique Saporta y Beja, En torno de la torre blanca, Editions Vidas Largas, page 28:
2000, La Lettre Sépharade, numbers 1–19, La Lettre Sépharade, page 17:
La ija Doreta kere ser avokata, i el terser, Hayimiko tyene katorze anyos.
The daughter Doreta wants to become a lawyer, and the third one, Hayimiko, is fourteen years old.
2006, Matilda Koén-Sarano, Por el plazer de kontar, Nur Afakot, page 36:
Pensas de no poder eskrivir presto? No emporta. I yo empesí avagar avagar. Tinía katorze anyos. I saves porké para mí fue mas fasil? Porké de la edá de diez anyos yo tanyía el piano.
You think that you can’t write early? Whatever. I started very slowly. I was fourteen years old. And you know why it was easier for me? Because at age ten I was playing the piano.
Este viejo ke tenia los vistidos rotos i suzios vino i se asento enfrente de Sarika, kito de su djep un jurnal amariyo kon manchas de azeyte i se metio a meldarlo sin darle importansa.
This old man wearing torn and dirty clothes came and sat down in front of Sarika, taking a yellow, oil-stained journal out of his pocket, and it was put down for reading without specifying its importance.
2002, Gad Nassi, editor, En Tierras Ajenas Yo Me Vo Murir: Tekstos Kontemporanos en Djudeo-espaniol : Leyenda de Una Lingua - Haketia - Kuentos. Memorias - Meliselda - Oki Oki, Isis, →ISBN, page 208:
“Vinites djusto en su tyempo, porke ay tres diyas ke no tengo komido nada i esto muy ambierto. Agora es a ti ke te va a komer.”
‘You came just in time, because it has been three days since I have eaten anything and I am pretty hungry. Now I am going to eat you.’
^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “tener, -a, -um”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 613
Further reading
“tener”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“tener”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
tener in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
(ambiguous) to be confined to one's bed: lecto teneri
(ambiguous) to be in gross error, seriously misled: magno errore teneri
(ambiguous) to be enamoured of philosophy: philosophiae (sapientiae) studio teneri (Acad. 1. 2. 4)
(ambiguous) to cherish a hope: spe duci, niti, teneri
(ambiguous) to long for a thing, yearn for it: desiderio alicuius rei teneri, affici (more strongly flagrare, incensum esse)
(ambiguous) to be bound by one's word; to be on one's honour: fide obstrictum teneri (Pis. 13. 29)
(ambiguous) to have an inclination for a thing: studio alicuius rei teneri
(ambiguous) to be bound by oath: iureiurando teneri (Off. 3. 27. 100)
(ambiguous) to be the slave of superstition: superstitione teneri, constrictum esse, obligatum esse
(ambiguous) to be bound by a law: lege teneri
(ambiguous) to be convicted by some one's evidence: testibus teneri, convictum esse
Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “tener”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
ca. 1376–1396, Juan Fernández de Heredia, Ystorias de Orosio:
Diuso de aquesti tiempo, Quintilio Vario faziendose subdito de los subiectos con marauellosa soberuia et grant auaricia, de los germanos qui se rebellauan fue destruido con tres legiones. El qual tajamiento et mortaldat de la republica Cesar Agusto la tenia en tanto por mala et grieu, que muchas vegadas por el grant dolor que dende auia, dando con la cabeça a la pared cridaua: "Quintilio Vario riendeme las legiones que yo te di."
Before this time, Quinctilius Varus, having become a subject of the conquered with marvelous arrogance and great greed, was destroyed by German rebels along with three legions. Augustus took this reduction , this mortality of the Republic, so badly and with such grief, that he would often, in great pain, hit his head against a wall shouting, ‘Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!’
e fue reẏ de tr̃a de iudea. ⁊ de tr̃a de isrꝉ. e de ihrꝉm e de ſamaria e fazia cadaun dia grãt eſpenſa e tenia g̃nt cort.
And he was king of the land of Judah and of the land of Israel, and of Jerusalem and of Samaria. And every day he incurred great expense and had a numerous court.
e veno en viſion dela noch q̃ vedia una eſcalera q̃ eſtaua ſobre la tierra e el cabo tenia ſobre los cielos eangeles de nr̃o ſennor ſubiã e deſcendian.
In the night came a vision where he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to the heavens, and the angels of the Lord were ascending and descending it.
(transitive) to contain; to hold(e.g. to "hold the power to", "hold the key", "hold a clue", "hold the truth", "have a hold on", "hold in store", "hold all the cards", "hold in high regard", etc.)
Este tarro tiene las cenizas. ― This jar contains the ashes.
El estadio es enorme. Puede tener una capacidad de hasta cien mil espectadores.
The stadium is huge. It can hold up to one hundred thousand spectators.
Solía pensar que ese libro tenía todas las respuestas.
to get(e.g. to get a minute, to get an idea, to get a chance, to get a concussion/bruise/headache, to get in an accident, to get a place, to get a view of, to get a meeting, to get a vision, etc.)
Ese cadete necesita tenerlo bajo control. ― That cadet needs to get it under control.
to keep; to bear(in certain phrases; e.g. to bear in mind, bear a resemblance, keep a journal/diary, keep around something or someone)
Ten en cuenta que es más difícil de volver a subir al cañón que descenderlo.
Keep in mind that it's more difficult to go back up the canyon than to go down it.
Pronto voy a comprobar sus billetes, así que ténganlos a manos.
I will soon be checking your tickets, so keep them handy.
Ella tuvo diez hijos, todos partos naturales. ― She bore ten children, all natural births.
In the sense (to feel):tener is often used with nouns like calor(“heat”), frío(“cold”), hambre(“hunger”), sed(“thirst”), to indicate states; English would use adjectives instead
Tengo hambre ― I'm hungry (literally, “I have hunger”)
Tengo miedo ― I'm scared (literally, “I have fear”)