tener

"To have," and also the backbone of a large set of idioms where English uses "to be": tener hambre (to be hungry), tener miedo (to be afraid), tener X años (to be X years old). Tener que + infinitive is the everyday way to express obligation.

• Tengo dos hermanos. — I have two siblings.
• Tengo que salir temprano. — I have to leave early.
• Ella tiene veinte años. — She is twenty years old.

Translating "I am hungry/afraid/20 years old" with ser or estar instead of tener — Spanish genuinely uses "to have" for these, so tengo hambre, not *estoy hambre* or *soy hambriento* in casual speech.

• politics "Tengo un sueño" — The standard Spanish translation of the title and refrain of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington.
• expression "No tener pelos en la lengua" — A fixed expression meaning to speak bluntly and without holding back — literally "to not have hairs on the tongue," used to describe someone who says exactly what they think.