Learn Spanish (Latin America): El doctor tiene un teléfono.

El doctor tiene un teléfono.

The doctor has a phone.

Breakdown of El doctor tiene un teléfono.

Questions & Answers about El doctor tiene un teléfono.

Why does it say un teléfono instead of uno teléfono?

Uno is the number one, but when it comes directly before a masculine singular noun like teléfono, it drops the -o and becomes un. It translates to "a" or "an" in English. If the noun were feminine, you would use una instead.

Which verb does tiene come from?

It comes from the verb tener, which means "to have". Because we are talking about el doctor (a "he"), we use the "he/she/it" form of the verb, which is tiene.

If the doctor were a woman, would the sentence change?

Yes! The word for a female doctor is la doctora, so the sentence would start with La doctora tiene. However, un teléfono stays exactly the same because the word for phone is always masculine, no matter who owns it.

Why is there an accent mark on teléfono?

The accent mark tells you which part of the word to emphasize when speaking. Without it, the normal rules of Spanish would make you stress the second-to-last syllable (te-le-FO-no), but the accent shows you need to emphasize the "lé" part: te-LÉ-fo-no.