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¿Tenéis hambre o sed?

¿Tenéis hambre o sed?
Are you all hungry or thirsty?
From Lesson 19:The verb tener (tengo, tienes)·Spanish (Spain)

Breakdown of ¿Tenéis hambre o sed?

o
or
tener
to have
el hambre
the hunger
la sed
the thirst

Questions & Answers about ¿Tenéis hambre o sed?

Why is the verb tener (to have) used here instead of a verb for 'to be'?
In English we say we 'are' hungry or thirsty, but in Spanish, you 'have' hunger (hambre) and thirst (sed). When you translate it literally, the sentence is asking 'Do you all have hunger or thirst?'
Why does the sentence use tenéis instead of tienen for 'you all'?
In Spain, tenéis is the vosotros form of tener. It is used when speaking informally to a group of people (like saying 'you guys'). Tienen is the ustedes form, which is used for formal situations in Spain, or for all groups in Latin America.
Where is the pronoun for 'you all' in this sentence?
The pronoun vosotros is left out because the verb form tenéis can only possibly belong to 'you all'. In Spanish, whenever the verb ending makes it completely obvious who is doing the action, the pronoun is usually dropped.
Why does tenéis have an accent mark on the 'e'?
The accent mark tells you to put the spoken stress on that exact vowel. The vosotros form of most verbs ending in -er gets an accent there, so you pronounce it as te-néis.

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