Questions & Answers about Yo tengo uno, tú tienes dos y él tiene tres.
Why is the number 'one' written as uno here instead of un?
When you are just saying the number 'one' on its own, you use uno. You only shorten it to un (or change it to una) when it comes directly before a noun, like un libro (one book). Since no noun is mentioned after the number here, it stays as uno. Why do the words tú and él have accent marks in this sentence?
The accent marks help tell these words apart from other short words that are spelled the same but mean different things. Tú with an accent means 'you', while tu without an accent means 'your'. Similarly, él means 'he', but el means 'the'. Why does the Spanish word for 'have' change from tengo to tienes to tiene?
In Spanish, verbs change their endings to match the person doing the action. The base verb here is tener (to have). Tengo matches yo (I), tienes matches tú (you), and tiene matches él (he). Could I drop the words yo, tú, and él from this sentence?
Yes, you could! Because the verb forms (tengo, tienes, tiene) already tell us who is doing the action, you can safely leave those pronouns out. However, they are used here to create a strong contrast between the different people: I have one, you have two, and he has three. Learn Yo tengo uno, tú tienes dos y él tiene tres and more in Spanish
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