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- "Do you have a purse?"
"Do you have a purse?"
Translation:¿Usted tiene una cartera?
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For anyone curious;
Tu - Tienes Usted - Tiene
With usted, you say tiene. With tu, you say tienes. Both "Usted tiene una cartera" and "Tu tienes una cartera" are both correct. Since there is no context to this sentence, we cannot tell whether the speaker is speaking formally or familiarly, which allows both translations to be correct.
(Off-topic: I just realized that I'm speaking like a school article... why am I like this ;-; )
Someone correct me if im wrong, I'm not sure of any exact grammar rules but i have been thinking about it like this; in English you can often change the sentence structure and have the sentence remain the same. For example, "¿Usted tiene una cartera?" Would translate as, "Do you have a purse?" And "¿Tiene usted una cartera?" Would translate as "Do you have yourself a purse?" As you can see, both sentences will still translate to mean the same thing, so both are technically correct. Additionally, I have been told that when asking a question, you can change the sentence structure to give an additional audio cue (besides tonal inflection) that you are indeed asking a question instead of making a statement. "Usted tiene una cartera." Means you have a purse, but with tonal inflection it changes to, "Do you have a purse?" While, "Tiene usted una cartera" makes it far more clear it is a question and makes it less likely to be confused as a statement. Not such a big deal when talking about a purse, but take for example a reservation...it is a BIG difference whether or not you are being told you have one versus being asked. Like i said earlier though, I'm not sure of specific rules and I don't know if you can change sentence structures with any sentence and have it retain the same meaning or if it is only acceptable to do with questions in order to make the question more clear.
Is the sentence structured like "usted tiene una cartera?" because SVO (subject, verb object) order or because it's just like that? Like, the subject would be you, the verb would be tiene, and the object would be cartera.... right?
So I guess if anyone's struggling with the sentence structure just think of that? I'm not sure, someone tell me if I'm wrong.
I have : Yo tengo You have: tu tienes (accent over the u that I can't do with this keyboard) He/she/they: tiene So, depends on who is speaking or being spoken to. Yo tengo tortillas (I have tortillas), tu tienes tortillas (you have tortillas), el/ella/usted tiene tortilla (he/she/they have tortillas.
Tiene is definitely has. However, English has only two variations of the verb have in the present tense:
I/we/you/they have
he/she/it has
It used to have four!
I have
thou hast
he/she/it/hath
we haven
you haven
they haven
Thank God it's simpler now. However, Spanish has seven variations. (Spanish is hard!)
yo tengo
tú tienes
vos tenés
él/ella/usted tiene
nosotros/nosotras tenemos
vosotos/vosotras tenéis
ellos/ellas/ustedes tienen
So you see tengo is also "have", but so are tienes, tenés, tenemos, tenéis, and tienen.
787
I don't think it's that cut and dry. There are plenty of people I know that I address formally.
392
Yes, just why not tienes una cartera? There's absolutely no indication that the question should be in the honorific>