Gread explanations, guys! Thanks!
On 11/07/09, Daniel Hanson wrote:
> On 11/07/09, lindsay wrote:
>> My students want to know why you use "tener" with age
>> instead of "ser". I am 15 instead of "I have 15 years." I
>> just know that is how I learned it. Nobody ever explained
>> the "why" to me. I told them that I would get back with
>> them on that on Monday.
>
> When I teach tener, (my students learn it first with
> expressing ages as well) I tell them up front that that's how
> Spanish speakers think. They think it's logical for someone
> to have or to complete so many years and that someone isn't
> really those years; it's something someone gets as they
> complete another year of life. Then I tell them that one
> language structure is not better than another and that they
> have to just think of it as "different," not dumb or stupid
> because it's not like how English is. I also remind them that
> Spanish is NOT translated English. Spanish will have its own
> way of expressing concepts and ideas.
>
>> I guess next they would probably
>> ask me about "tener frio" instead of "estar frio". Could
>> anyone help me? I think that "estar frio" would mean "cold
>> to the touch" and "tener frio" would be internal body
>> temperature, but I could be completely wrong here. Any
>> answers would be helpful.
>
> Again, this is a concept difference between the two
> languages, one syntactical structure is not better than the
> other. Estar frío is more based on the speaker's
> perception of his/her senses. They would not use this
> structure to describe themselves. If they want to say
> that 'they are feeling cold,' they need to use tener.
> Ser, as Marisol pointed out, can also be used with
> frío, but that is to describe a inherent
> characteristic of someone or something——some innate property
> or attribute. When this construction is used with people,
> it's used to describe their personality: Esa persona es
> muy fría. Here it means that that person is very cold-
> hearted.
>
> Does the distinction make sense now? Looking at lots of
> examples and having more exposure with these contexts will
> help.
>
> Below I will put the Royal Spanish Academy's explanation in
> its Diccionario panhispánico de dudas if you would
> like to read what it says.

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