Breakdown of Tengo una duda sobre la lección de hoy.
Questions & Answers about Tengo una duda sobre la lección de hoy.
In Spanish, many physical or mental states are expressed with tener (to have), not ser (to be) or estar (to be).
Some common patterns:
- Tengo hambre. → I am hungry. (literally “I have hunger.”)
- Tengo frío. → I am cold. (“I have cold.”)
- Tengo miedo. → I am afraid. (“I have fear.”)
- Tengo una duda. → I have a question / doubt.
So “Tengo una duda” is a fixed, very natural pattern: tener + noun to describe what you’re experiencing.
Yes, you can say “Tengo una pregunta sobre la lección de hoy”, and it’s perfectly correct.
Nuance:
- duda = doubt, uncertainty, something you’re not clear about
- pregunta = a question you formulate to ask someone
In practice, in class or in any learning context, “tener una duda” is very common and usually means “I have something I don’t understand / I need clarification.” It often implies you might have more than one question or are generally confused about some aspect.
Tengo una duda sobre la lección de hoy.
→ I’m unsure about something in today’s lesson; I’d like clarification.Tengo una pregunta sobre la lección de hoy.
→ I have a specific question about today’s lesson.
Both are fine and both are widely used. In everyday speech, “tengo una duda” is extremely common in Spanish-speaking countries.
Because “duda” is a feminine noun in Spanish.
- la duda, una duda → the doubt / a doubt
- la casa, una casa → the house / a house
Feminine nouns usually (not always) end in -a, and they take la / una.
Masculine nouns usually (not always) end in -o, and they take el / un.
So:
- una duda (feminine)
- un problema (masculine, even though it ends in -a)
In this sentence, sobre means “about / regarding / on”.
Common uses of sobre:
About / regarding (topic)
- Tengo una duda sobre la lección de hoy.
→ I have a doubt about today’s lesson.
- Tengo una duda sobre la lección de hoy.
On / on top of (physical location)
- El libro está sobre la mesa.
→ The book is on the table.
- El libro está sobre la mesa.
Other ways to say “about today’s lesson”:
- sobre la lección de hoy
- acerca de la lección de hoy (a bit more formal)
- de la lección de hoy (also common: Tengo una duda de la lección de hoy.)
“Sobre” is very common and natural in this context.
Yes.
Tengo una duda sobre la lección de hoy.
→ I have one doubt / one point of confusion.Tengo dudas sobre la lección de hoy.
→ I have doubts / several things I don’t fully understand about today’s lesson.
In real life, people often say “Tengo una duda” even if they end up asking more than one question. But grammatically, using the plural dudas is also correct and natural if you want to emphasize multiple issues.
Spanish prefers this order: [noun] + de + [specifier].
- la lección de hoy = today’s lesson
- el libro de Juan = Juan’s book
- la tarea de matemáticas = the math homework
Putting “de hoy” before “la lección” (“de hoy la lección”) is not natural in modern Spanish.
You can, however, move the whole phrase for emphasis:
- Sobre la lección de hoy, tengo una duda.
(More formal/literary; still correct.)
Yes, “la clase de hoy” is very common in Latin America and often sounds more natural than “la lección de hoy”, depending on the context.
- lección = lesson (often the specific material or section of a textbook or course)
- clase = the class session or the subject/class in general
Examples:
Tengo una duda sobre la lección de hoy.
→ I’m confused about today’s lesson (maybe a grammar point, topic, or section).Tengo una duda sobre la clase de hoy.
→ I’m confused about something we did in class today.
In many Latin American classrooms, “clase” is more frequent in everyday speech. “Lección” is still correct and understood.
Lección has an accent mark on the ó because of Spanish stress rules.
- Words ending in a consonant other than -n or -s are usually stressed on the last syllable.
- Words ending in a vowel, -n, or -s are usually stressed on the second-to-last syllable.
Lección ends in -n, so by default it would be stressed on the second-to-last syllable: LEC-cion.
But the correct stress is on the last syllable: lec-CIÓN.
To show that the stress breaks the normal rule, Spanish adds a written accent: lección.
Pronunciation: lek-SYON (similar to “lek-syón”).
Yes, it is polite and very common in class.
You can use it with any teacher:
- Profesor(a), tengo una duda sobre la lección de hoy.
If you want to make it even more polite or formal, you could say:
Disculpe, tengo una duda sobre la lección de hoy.
(Excuse me, I have a question about today’s lesson.)Quisiera hacer una consulta sobre la lección de hoy.
(I’d like to ask about today’s lesson. – more formal.)
Approximate phonetic guide (Latin American pronunciation):
- Tengo → TEN-go
- soft g as in “go”
- una → OO-na
- duda → DOO-da (the d between vowels is softer, similar to the English “th” in “this” for many speakers)
- sobre → SO-bre (rolled or tapped r)
- la → la
- lección → lek-SYON (final -ción sounds like “syón”; stress on ción)
Spoken together, it flows like:
TEN-go oo-na DOO-da SO-bre la lek-SYON de oy.
(“hoy” is like English “oy!”)
Yes, you’ll hear both:
- Tengo una duda sobre la lección de hoy.
- Tengo una duda de la lección de hoy.
In many regions they’re used interchangeably. Sobre is a bit more “standard” when talking about topics (“about / regarding”), but de is very common, natural, and not incorrect.
Not necessarily. Context matters.
In English, “I have a doubt” is unusual and can sound like you don’t trust something. In Spanish, “tengo una duda” is neutral and very common in learning or explanation contexts.
Typical uses:
Tengo una duda sobre este ejercicio.
→ I’m not sure how this exercise works / I don’t fully understand it.Tengo una duda sobre lo que dijo.
→ I’m unclear about what you said / I have a question about it.
It doesn’t automatically imply skepticism; it usually just means “I’m not fully clear on this.”