This the sixteenth lesson in our beginner level Spanish course and we will look at Parts of the Body in Spanish and practice describing physical appearances with Tener (To have).
We have looked at Tener (To have) previously in this course and we practiced using it with Yo (I), Tú (You), Él (He) and Ella (She) to describe things that we and other people have. In this lesson we will learn how to conjugate Tener with all persons and practice using it to describe Parts of the Body in Spanish.
El Verbo Tener (To have):
(Yo) Tengo: I have
(Tú) Tienes: You have (single You)
(Él/Ella) Tiene: He/She has
(Nosotros/as) Tenemos: We have
(Vosotros/as) Tenéis: You have (plural You)
(Ellos/as) Tienen: They have
Remember that the ‘/as’ with Nosotros, Vosotros and Ellos is to indicate that when you are talking about a We, You, or They that is entirely female (remember that every noun in Spanish is either masculine/el or feminine/la) you should use Nosotras, Vosotras, or Ellas. When the We, You, or They is entirely male or a mix of male and female you will use Nosotros, Vosotros, or Ellos.
Next, let’s look at some useful vocabulary related to El Cuerpo (The Body)…
Parts of the Body in Spanish:
Arm: el brazo
Back: la espalda
Chest: el pecho
Ears: las orejas
Eyes: los ojos
Eyebrows: las cejas
Eyelashes: las pestañas
Face: la cara
Finger: el dedo
Foot/Feet: el pie/los pies
Forehead: la frente
Hair: el pelo
Hand: la mano
Head: la cabeza
Leg: la pierna
Lips: los labios
Mouth: la boca
Neck: el cuello
Nose: la nariz
Skin: la piel
Tooth/Teeth: el diente/los dientes
Useful adjectives to describe Parts of the Body in Spanish:
Adjectives are words which describe nouns (e.g. size, shape, age, color, origin, material). In English, adjectives typically come before the nouns they describe whereas in Spanish adjectives come after the noun (e.g. short hair: pelo corto/hair short).
Corto/a: Short
Largo/a: Long
Pequeño/a: Small
Grande: Big
In Spanish, some adjectives change, depending upon whether the word they describe is masculine or feminine and all change depending upon whether the word they describe is singular or plural.
With adjectives that end in –O you change their ending to –A if you are describing a female thing. When describing singular things with adjectives that don’t finish in –O you don’t change the ending of the adjective.
You add –OS if you are describing more than one masculine thing and –AS if you are describing more than one female thing. When describing more than one thing you add –ES to the adjective if it ends in a consonant and –S if it ends in a vowel.
Let’s practice with these new adjectives, Tener and the Parts of the Body in Spanish:
Ella tiene el pelo largo: She has long hair
Nosotros tenemos el pelo corto: We have short hair
Yo tengo las orejas grandes: I have big ears
Vosotras tenéis las orejas pequeñas: You have small ears
Ellos tienen los pies grandes: They have big feet
Tú tienes los pies pequeños: You have small feet
Yo no tengo las pestañas largas: I don’t have long eyelashes
Ella tiene las pestañas cortas: She has short eyelashes
Tú no tienes los dientes grandes: You don’t have big teeth
Él tienes los dientes grandes: He has big teeth
That’s all for this lesson about the Parts of the Body in Spanish. As always we recommend that you practice what you have learned by writing your own practice sentences using the new vocabulary and adjectives with Tener. We also recommend that you go back and review the previous lessons in this course such as Possessive Adjectives and Ser and Estar, and look out for the next lesson!
