Spanish 1 Quiz: Using Tener
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Using TenerQuestion 1 of 15

Complete: 'Mi hermano   trece años.'

tienen
tengo
está
tiene
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Spanish 1 Quiz

Spanish 1 Quiz: Using Tener

Practice Using Tener in Spanish 1 with focused quiz questions that help you check what you know, review explanations, and build confidence with test-style prompts.

What this quiz covers

This quiz focuses on Using Tener, giving you a quick way to practice the rules, question types, and explanations that matter most for Spanish 1.

How to use this quiz

Try each quiz question before looking at the correct answer. Use the explanations to review missed ideas, then come back to similar questions until the pattern feels familiar.

All questions

Question 1

Complete: 'Mi hermano   trece años.'

  1. tienen
  2. tengo
  3. está
  4. tiene (correct answer)
Explanation: Use 'tener' for age, not 'ser' or 'estar'. The subject 'mi hermano' is third-person singular, so the verb must be 'tiene' (he has). The tempting 'está' means 'is' but would be incorrect for age.

Question 2

Complete the sentence for speaking to a teacher: 'Usted   un coche azul.'

  1. tiene (correct answer)
  2. tienes
  3. tener
  4. tienen
Explanation: Usted is the formal 'you' and takes the third-person singular verb form, so tener becomes tiene. Tienes is the informal tú form, not used for a teacher. Tienen is plural, and tener is the unconjugated infinitive.

Question 3

Complete: 'Mi familia   un perro.'

  1. tienen
  2. tiene (correct answer)
  3. tengo
  4. tener
Explanation: 'Familia' is a singular noun, so it takes the third-person singular form of tener: 'tiene.' The tempting choice is 'tienen,' but you should not use the plural just because the family has multiple members. The subject noun is singular, so the verb must be singular too.

Question 4

Complete the informal question: '¿Cuántos años  ?'

  1. tienes (correct answer)
  2. tiene
  3. eres
  4. hay
Explanation: In Spanish, age is expressed with the verb tener, not ser. Since the question is informal, use the tú form: tú tienes. The most tempting wrong choice is 'tiene', but that is the usted/él/ella form, not the informal you.

Question 5

Complete: 'Mi amigo y yo   dos mascotas.'

  1. tengo
  2. tienen
  3. tenemos (correct answer)
  4. tiene
Explanation: The subject 'mi amigo y yo' means 'my friend and I', which is first-person plural (we). So the verb 'tener' must be 'tenemos'. 'Tengo' is only for 'yo' alone, but here you're together with your friend, so you need the 'we' form.

Question 6

Read the following sentence written by a student: 'Yo tengo un hermano. Él tiene doce años y tiene una bicicleta roja.'

How many times is 'tener' used in this passage, and which grammatical persons do those uses represent, in order?

  1. Three times: yo (first-person singular), yo (first-person singular), él (third-person singular).
  2. Three times: yo (first-person singular), él (third-person singular), él (third-person singular). (correct answer)
  3. Two times: yo (first-person singular) and él (third-person singular), with the third verb belonging to a different tense.
  4. Three times: tú (second-person singular), él (third-person singular), él (third-person singular).
Explanation: When you see a question about verb conjugations, train yourself to identify every conjugated verb form and ask two things: Which verb is this? and Who is the subject? In this passage, the verb tener appears three times. In "Yo tengo un hermano," the form tengo is first-person singular (yo). Then the sentence shifts: "Él tiene doce años y tiene una bicicleta roja." Both uses of tiene are third-person singular (él), referring to the brother. That gives you the sequence: yo → él → él, which is exactly what answer B states, making it correct. Answer A is wrong because it misidentifies the second verb. It claims tiene (in "Él tiene doce años") belongs to yo, but the subject has already shifted to él with the pronoun "Él" at the start of the second sentence. Answer C is wrong on two counts: it claims the verb appears only twice and suggests the third verb belongs to a different tense. All three verbs (tengo, tiene, tiene) are in the present tense (presente de indicativo), and all three are clearly forms of tener — there is no tense switch here. Answer D is wrong because it introduces tú (second-person singular) for the first use, but the passage explicitly uses the subject pronoun yo and the form tengo, which is unmistakably first-person. A useful study habit: whenever you conjugate a verb, always link it back to its subject pronoun. The ending -go signals first-person singular, and -e (in -er/-ir verbs like tener) signals third-person singular in the present tense.

Question 7

A teacher asks her class to write one sentence about a classmate's age. Luisa writes: 'Carlos tiene trece año.'

Luisa's sentence contains an error. Which corrected version fixes the mistake while keeping the same meaning?

  1. Carlos tiene trece años de edad.
  2. Carlos tienen trece años.
  3. Carlos tengo trece años.
  4. Carlos tiene trece años. (correct answer)
Explanation: When you see a question involving Spanish nouns paired with numbers, always check for noun-number agreement — singular nouns go with "one," and plural nouns go with any other number. You should also check that the verb matches its subject. In Luisa's original sentence, "Carlos tiene trece año," the error is that año (year) is singular, but trece (thirteen) requires the plural form años. The fix is simple: add the -s to make it plural. The corrected sentence, "Carlos tiene trece años," matches number correctly and uses the right verb form — tiene, the third-person singular of tener, which agrees with the singular subject Carlos. Looking at the wrong choices: A — "Carlos tiene trece años de edad" — is grammatically correct Spanish, but it adds the phrase de edad (meaning "of age"), which changes the phrasing and is unnecessary. Since the question asks you to fix the mistake while keeping the same meaning as closely as possible, the cleaner correction in D is the better answer. B — "Carlos tienen trece años" — fixes the noun but introduces a new error: tienen is third-person plural ("they have"), which doesn't agree with the singular subject Carlos. C — "Carlos tengo trece años" — uses tengo, which is first-person singular ("I have"), a completely wrong verb form for talking about Carlos. A handy tip: in Spanish, numbers greater than one always take a plural noun. Remember uno = singular, todo lo demás = plural — one is singular, everything else is plural.

Question 8

A student wants to say 'My brother is 20 years old' in Spanish. Which sentence is correct?

  1. Mi hermano tiene veinte años. (correct answer)
  2. Mi hermano es veinte años.
  3. Mi hermano tiene veinte año.
  4. Mi hermano tienen veinte años.
Explanation: When expressing someone's age in Spanish, you need to use the verb tener (to have), not ser (to be). This trips up many English speakers because we say someone "is 20 years old," but Spanish literally says someone "has 20 years" — tiene veinte años. Option A, "Mi hermano tiene veinte años," is correct. It uses tiene, the third-person singular conjugation of tener that matches the subject Mi hermano (he), and años is correctly plural since we're talking about more than one year. Option B is wrong because it uses es, a form of ser, which means "to be." While ser has many uses in Spanish, expressing age is not one of them. Saying "es veinte años" is a direct — and incorrect — translation from English. Option C uses tiene correctly, which is a good instinct, but it writes año in the singular. Since 20 is a plural number, the noun must also be plural: años, not año. Always match the noun's number to the quantity. Option D makes a subject-verb agreement error. Tienen is the third-person plural conjugation of tener (used for ellos/ellas/ustedes), but Mi hermano is a singular subject. The correct conjugation for él is tiene, not tienen. A quick study tip: memorize the phrase "tener   años" as a fixed structure for age. Whenever you see an age question, mentally check three things — use tener, conjugate it to match the subject, and pluralize años.

Question 9

Which of the following Spanish sentences most accurately expresses the idea: 'Do you (informal, singular) have a bicycle?'

  1. ¿Tienes una bicicleta? (correct answer)
  2. ¿Tiene una bicicleta?
  3. ¿Tengo una bicicleta?
  4. ¿Tienen una bicicleta?
Explanation: When a question asks you to translate a sentence with a specific subject — especially noting "informal" or "formal" — your first instinct should be to identify the correct verb conjugation. In Spanish, the verb tener (to have) changes form depending on who is doing the action, so matching the subject to the right conjugation is everything here. For "you (informal, singular)," the subject pronoun is tú, which pairs with the conjugation tienes. That makes A) ¿Tienes una bicicleta? the correct translation — it directly and accurately asks an informal peer or friend if they have a bicycle. Here's why the other options miss the mark. B) ¿Tiene una bicicleta? uses tiene, which corresponds to usted (formal "you") or él/ella (he/she). This would be appropriate if you were speaking respectfully to a stranger or authority figure, but not informally. C) ¿Tengo una bicicleta? uses tengo, which is the first-person singular form meaning "I have" — so this translates to "Do I have a bicycle?" which is a completely different subject. D) ¿Tienen una bicicleta? uses tienen, the third-person plural or formal plural form (ellos/ellas/ustedes), meaning "Do they have a bicycle?" — again, the wrong subject entirely. A handy study tip: memorize the tener conjugation chart in full — tengo, tienes, tiene, tenemos, tenéis, tienen — because Spanish-1 exams frequently test whether you can distinguish informal tú (tienes) from formal usted (tiene). That one-letter difference carries a lot of meaning!

Question 10

Which sentence correctly uses 'tener' to express possession and is free of errors?

  1. Nosotros tengo tres libros de español.
  2. Nosotros tienen tres libros de español.
  3. Nosotros tenemos tres libros de español. (correct answer)
  4. Nosotros tienes tres libros de español.
Explanation: When working with Spanish verbs, you must always match the verb ending to the subject performing the action — this is called subject-verb agreement. With the verb tener (to have), each subject pronoun has its own unique conjugated form, and mixing them up is one of the most common errors in Spanish 1. The subject here is nosotros (we), which requires the verb form tenemos. So C) Nosotros tenemos tres libros de español is the correct sentence — the subject and verb are in perfect agreement, and the meaning is clear: "We have three Spanish books." Looking at the wrong options reveals three classic agreement mistakes. A) Nosotros tengo pairs nosotros with tengo, which is the yo (I) form — it's as if you said "we has" in English. B) Nosotros tienen uses the ellos/ellas/ustedes (they/you all) form, which belongs to a completely different subject — again a mismatch, like saying "we have" but conjugating for "they." D) Nosotros tienes uses the tú (you, informal) form, mixing a plural subject with a singular second-person ending — another clear mismatch. Notice that all four options keep nosotros the same — the trap is entirely in the verb ending. This is intentional: the question tests whether you truly know your conjugation chart, not just whether you recognize the word tener. Study tip: Memorize the full tener conjugation chart (tengo, tienes, tiene, tenemos, tenéis, tienen) and always ask yourself: "Who is doing the action?" before choosing a verb form.

Question 11

María is filling out a form at school. She writes: 'Me llamo María.   quince años y   un perro y dos gatos.'

Which option correctly completes both blanks in María's form?

  1. Tengo / tengo (correct answer)
  2. Tiene / tiene
  3. Tengo / tiene
  4. Tienen / tengo
Explanation: When you see a question asking you to fill in multiple blanks in Spanish, always identify the subject of each verb first. Here, the speaker is María — she is writing about herself, so every verb needs to match the first-person singular (yo) form. The verb tener (to have) is the key structure being tested. Its present-tense conjugations are: yo tengo, tú tienes, él/ella tiene, nosotros tenemos, ellos tienen. María is saying "I am fifteen years old" (Tengo quince años) and "I have a dog and two cats" (tengo un perro y dos gatos). Both blanks refer to the same speaker — herself — so both verbs must be tengo. That makes A the correct answer. B (tiene / tiene) uses the third-person singular form, meaning "he/she/it has." This would only be correct if someone else were describing María, not María describing herself. C (tengo / tiene) gets the first blank right but incorrectly switches to third person for the second blank — there's no subject change, so the verb should stay in the yo form. D (tienen / tengo) uses the third-person plural form (they have) in the first blank, which doesn't match a single speaker at all, then correctly uses tengo in the second blank — an inconsistent mix. A quick tip: whenever you see a sentence written in the first person (using me llamo, soy, vivo, etc.), expect that other verbs in the same sentence will also be yo forms unless the subject clearly shifts.

Question 12

Read the following mini-dialogue: Ana: '¿Cuántos años tienes?' Pedro: '  dieciséis años. ¿Y tú?' Ana: 'Yo   quince.'

Which pair of verb forms correctly completes Pedro's and Ana's responses, in that order?

  1. Tengo / tengo (correct answer)
  2. Tienes / tengo
  3. Tengo / tienes
  4. Tiene / tiene
Explanation: When completing sentences in Spanish, you need to match the verb form to the subject of each sentence — this is called subject-verb agreement. The verb tener (to have) changes its ending depending on who is speaking or being spoken about. Here's the key conjugation to know: yo tengo (I have), tú tienes (you have), él/ella tiene (he/she has). In age expressions, Spanish uses tener — literally "I have 16 years" instead of "I am 16." In Pedro's line, he's talking about himself (yo), so he needs tengo. In Ana's response, she says "Yo   quince," making it clear she's also talking about herself — so she also needs tengo. That makes A) Tengo / tengo the correct pair. Choice B) Tienes / tengo is wrong because tienes is the tú form, meaning "you have." Pedro isn't describing Ana's age — he's stating his own, so tienes makes no sense there. Choice C) Tengo / tienes correctly gives Pedro the right form but then wrongly uses tienes for Ana, even though she explicitly signals the subject with "Yo." Choice D) Tiene / tiene uses the él/ella form twice — the third-person singular — which would only be correct if someone else were describing a third person's age, not the speakers describing their own. A helpful tip: always scan the sentence for the explicit subject pronoun (yo, tú, él, etc.) before choosing a verb form. When you see yo, your answer is almost always tengo, soy, estoy, or another first-person form.

Question 13

A student tries to express 'My parents have a house' and writes: 'Mis padres   una casa.' Which form of 'tener' correctly fills the blank?

  1. tengo
  2. tenemos
  3. tiene
  4. tienen (correct answer)
Explanation: When working with the verb tener (to have) in Spanish, the key skill is subject-verb agreement — the verb form must match the subject in person and number. Before filling in any blank, identify who is performing the action and how many people that includes. Here, the subject is mis padres (my parents), which is third person plural — more than one person, and neither "I" nor "you." That means you need the ellos/ellas form of tener, which is tienen. So D is the correct answer: Mis padres tienen una casa. Here's why the other options don't work: A) tengo is the yo (I) form — you'd use this to say Yo tengo una casa (I have a house), not when talking about your parents. B) tenemos is the nosotros (we) form — it would mean "we have," which would incorrectly include yourself as part of the group. C) tiene is the él/ella/usted form — this works for a single third-person subject like mi madre tiene (my mother has), but padres is plural, so the singular form doesn't match. A helpful study strategy: before choosing a verb form, mentally label the subject with its pronoun. Mis padres = ellos, which immediately points you to tienen. Memorizing the full tener conjugation chart (tengo, tienes, tiene, tenemos, tenéis, tienen) and pairing each form with its pronoun will make subject-verb agreement questions much faster to solve.

Question 14

Elena writes the following sentence for homework: 'Mi amiga y yo tenemos diecisiete años.'

Is Elena's sentence grammatically correct, and why?

  1. No, it is incorrect. The verb should be 'tiene' because 'mi amiga' is singular and controls the verb agreement.
  2. No, it is incorrect. 'Mi amiga y yo' should take 'tienen' because two people are mentioned and both are female.
  3. Yes, it is correct. 'Mi amiga y yo' is a nosotros subject, so 'tenemos' is the appropriate conjugation of 'tener.' (correct answer)
  4. No, it is incorrect. Age expressions with two subjects require 'tengo' to reflect the speaker's personal ownership of the statement.
Explanation: When a sentence has a compound subject that includes "yo" (I), Spanish treats the whole subject as nosotros (we), which changes everything about verb agreement. This is the key concept being tested here. "Mi amiga y yo" literally means "my friend and I" — two people, one of whom is the speaker. Whenever "yo" is part of a compound subject, the group becomes a first-person plural subject, requiring the nosotros conjugation. For tener, that form is tenemos. So Elena's sentence — "Mi amiga y yo tenemos diecisiete años" — is perfectly correct, making C the right answer. Now let's break down why the other choices miss the mark. A claims the verb should be "tiene" because "mi amiga" is singular. This is a classic trap: you cannot ignore "yo" just because "mi amiga" comes first in the phrase. The entire compound subject governs verb agreement, not just one part of it. B suggests using "tienen" (they have), which would apply to a third-person plural subject like "ellas." However, since "yo" is included, the subject is nosotros, not ellos/ellas — "tienen" would erase the speaker from the sentence entirely. D is simply invented grammar; there is no rule in Spanish requiring "tengo" when two subjects share an age expression. Study tip: Any time you see "  y yo" as a subject, immediately think nosotros and reach for the -mos ending. This pattern appears frequently on Spanish exams and is easy to miss if you only look at the first noun in the phrase.

Question 15

A student wants to ask a teacher (using formal address) how old she is. Which sentence is correct?

  1. ¿Cuántos años tienes usted?
  2. ¿Cuántos años tiene usted? (correct answer)
  3. ¿Cuántos años tengo usted?
  4. ¿Cuántos años tienen usted?
Explanation: When asking someone's age in Spanish using formal address, you need to pay attention to two things at once: the verb tener (to have) and the subject pronoun usted. In Spanish, usted is the formal "you," but here's the crucial detail — even though usted means "you," it grammatically takes the third-person singular verb form, the same ending used for él or ella. The correct conjugation of tener for usted is tiene, making option B — ¿Cuántos años tiene usted? — the right answer. This literally translates to "How many years do you have?" (formally), which is the standard Spanish way of asking someone's age. Looking at why the other options fail: A uses tienes, which is the informal tú form. If you were speaking casually with a friend, tienes would be appropriate, but pairing it with usted creates a contradiction — you're mixing formal and informal registers, which is grammatically incorrect. C uses tengo, the first-person singular form meaning "I have." This would only be used if you were stating your own age, not asking someone else. D uses tienen, the third-person plural form for ellos/ellas or ustedes (plural you). This would be used to ask a group of people their ages, not a single person. A handy tip: whenever you see usted in a sentence, always treat it like él/ella for verb conjugation purposes. Remembering "usted = third-person singular" will save you from the common trap of choosing the tú form just because usted means "you."