Log inSign up

El niño tiene un año.

El niño tiene un año.
The boy is one year old.
From Lesson 19:The verb tener (tengo, tienes)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about El niño tiene un año.

Why does the Spanish sentence use tiene instead of the verb for "is" when talking about age?
In English, you are a certain age, but in Spanish, you have years. Because tiene is the "he/she/it has" form of the verb tener (to have), El niño tiene un año literally translates to "The boy has one year."
Why is it un año instead of uno año?
When the number uno (one) comes directly before a masculine singular noun like año (year), it drops the final letter and becomes un.
Is the wavy line over the n in año important?
Yes, it is extremely important! The letter ñ is a completely different letter from the regular n and sounds a bit like the "ny" in the English word "canyon". If you leave it out and say ano, you are actually saying a medical word for a part of the digestive anatomy, which is a classic and very embarrassing mistake for beginners!
How do I know to use tiene here instead of tengo or tienes?
The verb tener changes depending on who you are talking about. While tengo means "I have" and tienes means "you have" (informal), here we are talking about el niño (the boy). For "he", "she", or "it", the correct form is always tiene.

Learn El niño tiene un año and more in Spanish

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning Spanish →