Tinc un cotxe.

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Breakdown of Tinc un cotxe.

• tenir: to have
• el cotxe: the car

Questions & Answers about Tinc un cotxe.

What part of speech is tinc, and what verb does it come from?

Tinc is the 1st person singular present tense form of the verb tenir, which means to have.

So:

• tenir = to have
• tinc = I have

A few present-tense forms of tenir are:

• tinc = I have
• tens = you have
• té = he/she/it has
• tenim = we have
• teniu = you all have
• tenen = they have

So tinc is not the dictionary form; it is the conjugated form used with I.

Why isn’t jo included? Shouldn’t it be Jo tinc un cotxe?

Catalan often leaves out subject pronouns when they are not needed.

Because tinc already shows that the subject is I, you usually do not need jo.

So both are possible:

• Tinc un cotxe. = normal, neutral
• Jo tinc un cotxe. = more emphatic, contrastive, or explicit

You might use jo if you want to stress the subject:

• Jo tinc un cotxe, però ell no.
  I have a car, but he doesn’t.

Why is it and not ?