'Tiene' confusion

¡Hola mi amigos! Aquí está mi pregunta para el día. lol!! .... ¿Cuáles son las reglas para el uso de "Tiene"? Por ejemplo: ¿Tiene sentido? significa "does it make sense?" y ¿Tiene(s) hijos? significa "do you have kids?" No entiendo por qué la misma palabra tiene dos significados completamente diferentes. ¿Hay una 'regla de oro' para que puedo saber dónde y cuándo se utiliza? ¿Dónde está mi hermano Chris?!! lol!! ¡Gracias a todos! !Hasta la próxima!

¡Hola Tobill! I hope this helps if I understood your 'Q' right. Tengo = I have, por ejemplo: Tengo un gato Tienes = you have: Tienes un hermano Tiene = has: Juan tiene un perro Tenemos = we have: Tenemos tres dólares Tenéis = you all have: Tenéis una casa bonita Tienen = they have: Ellos tienen los tenedores ¡Hasta la vista Speedy!

I think it would be 'tienes hijos' = have you children

Hermano T63!!!! Whats up!!, well they just gave you the rules! Mr De Oppresso has the right answer!!... And yes, the verb "TENER", to have , changes depending on the person or thing doing the action (verb) in this case TENER. YO...Tengo TU...Tienes EL/ELLA...Tiene NOSOTROS...Tenemos USTEDES...Tienen ELLOS/ELLAS...Tienen VOSOTROS (only used in Spain)..Tenéis Saludos hermano!

!Qué tal mis amigos! lol!! Muchas gracias por las respuestas, pero no lo hice mi palabra pregunta muy bien. I understand that 'tener' means have, has, had, etc. What I don't understand is why it is used as 'does' in the phrase 'tiene sentido'. This means "does it make sense", right? 'does' is a conjugation of 'hacer' (to do/make). eso es lo que yo estaba pidiendo en mi pregunta original. ¡Lo siento por la confusión! lol!! !Hasta la próxima mis amigos! T63

Tobill63, Without further context, I am not certain that "sentido" is meant to be translated as "sense". I think sentido could be a verb, adjective, or noun. And I can't help but see sentido as a word used in compound tenses. However, then a conjugated form of the auxiliary verb haber would be included, so your example: "tiene sentido" would not apply. I'm anxious for Christian to help clarify your original question.

Hi Patrice! Thanks for chiming in. Here is a complete sentence that uses 'tiene' as 'does'. ¿tiene sentido lo que digo? This translates as "does it make sense what I said" Does this sentence literally translate as "has it made sense what I said"? That would put 'tiene' in the right context. Other than that, I don't see any form of "to have" (tener) in this sentence. My question is, why use a form of tener (to have) to express 'does', instead of using a form of hacer (to do) ? Is this just an isolated idiom, or is there a rule that I missed that makes 'tiene' mean "does"? Lol!! I gotta stop...I'm confusing myself!! :) T63

T63, After you put it as above, I translate it to mean: Do you have a sense of what I said? I am constantly trippped up when I try to "literally" translate Spanish to English. Agreed?

Hola!!! Thanks a lot for trusting me and my comments!... Well, i see that you have made a very good analysis of all this, and yes, its mainly 2 things...one is "never translate literally" otherwise, it would "not make sense" most of the time! (sorry, i had to use the phrase haha). 2nd!, in spanish, "sentido" could also mean several other stuff, for example i use it for "direction"..."En que sentido se fue el carro?" (in which direction did the car went). Also it has to do with "feelling" something...for example, "No he sentido el efecto" (i havent sense the efect or i havent felt it)....and most important, its just a thing of culture and language, as simple as we dont "make sense" we "have sense"...let me try to explain this!.... In english you say , "This makes sense" in spanish we say "Esto tiene sentido" (this has a direction, but doesnt "make" one".....its just the verb we choose in spanish is different!...thats all, as simple as that!!!... ANd T63, "Tiene" doesnt mean "Does"...it just means "Has" :)...in that case i would use "¿Acaso eso tiene sentido?"...the "acaso" would be the "does"... Saludos desde Mexico!

Gracias por tú repuesta. Entiendo ahora.

Hola todos, ¡Feliz Navidad! I hear the question ¿Que tienes? used in telenovelas with the meaning of "what's the matter" or "what's wrong?" A mother notices a troubled look on her son's face and asks ¿Que tienes hijo? ¿ Es correcto Cristian ? Saludos, Rich

Hola Rich! Yes, even if literally it means "what do you have?" its used as "whats the matter?" or "whats wrong?". :D Saludos y feliz navidad!

Saludos a todos, Me disfruto leer estas respuestas. Ayer yo pude usar "tiene sentido". Mis amigos me entendieron. ¡Que emocionante! Gracias a todos por este foro.

How do you say 'lol' in spanish? :D

Hola! There is no acronym in spanish for LOL...some of us, actually use the same LOL, but, if we translate it directly it would be something like..."Riendo en voz alta" (laughing out loud). But, we use (at least in Mexico) the "Muero de la risa" (im dying out of laughter) or simpli Jajajajaja! :D Saludos

I like Jajajajajajajaja! ¡REVA!

jajajaja!! REVA!

Hi everybody! Hope you all had great holidays! Wow! Go away for a couple days and everybody on the site comments! lol!! Cool! Okay, thanks to all for my "tiene" question. I think I got it now lol!! I really lit a fire with that one, huh? And to Christian and De Oppresso Liber, I didn't discount the original advice you gave me, it just didn't answer the question I was trying to ask. Thanks for the effort though! Rich came up with a couple of similar phrases, too. I guess that's just one of those "memory" things. Is English this hard to learn because some words are used in places that don't really make sense? Thanks again everybody! T63