What I do about "why?" in general.. If there is a reason, I tell
them: Agua is el not la because it would be awkward to say la agua

Ir in the past uses ar endings because otherwise it would be
iia..that would be impossible to pronounce

But other times we just have to accept that "it is what it is"..
i.e. we know we can't say "goed' but there's not a rational reason
why it evolved into "went". On 11/07/09, lindsay

For tener/as others have said: We "have" feelings in
Spanish--hunger, thirst, even "reason" as in to be right--and we
include tener with ages there, too. We "have" the number of years we
are.

Frio: hace frio--the weather is cold

tiene frio: S/he's or Ud es cold La casa tiene frio But notice you
are saying (and mean) "I feel cold in the house"

esta frio--it's cold as Daniel said) in a temporary sense--the
house is cold (now), the pizza is cold, etc.

Now here's where I'm not sure: Is la casa es frio correct?

Can you correctly say "es muy frio en Alaska" or is it only "hace
mucho frio en Alaska"?

I have heard "Es muy frio en Peru en julio.." but I don't know if
that is actually correct Spanish.

wrote:
> 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.

Share This Post | Report This Post

Next Post >>

Posts on this thread, including this one