Questions & Answers about Tengo toda la paciencia.
If this lesson is about "mucha" (a lot), how would this sentence change to say "I have a lot of patience"?
Why is it toda and not todo?
Toda means "all" and it changes to match the gender of the noun it describes. Because paciencia is a feminine noun, you have to use the feminine form toda. If you were talking about a masculine word like tiempo (time), it would be todo el tiempo (all the time).
Why don't we need to say Yo tengo (I have)?
You can say Yo tengo, but the yo is usually dropped. The verb tener (to have) changes to tengo only for "I". Because the form of the verb already makes it perfectly clear who is having the patience, Spanish speakers usually leave the yo out unless they are trying to emphasize it (like saying "I have all the patience, but you don't").
Paciencia looks very similar to the English word "patience". Is there a pattern here?
Yes! Many English words ending in "-ce" or "-nce" translate to Spanish words ending in -cia or -ncia (for example: diferencia, inteligencia, distancia). As a handy bonus, these words are almost always feminine, which helps you remember to use la, toda, or mucha with them.
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