Tendría vs Tiene

Question

I am relatively new to Spanish, and have absolutely no idea as to what the difference between tendría and tiene is. Can someone please elaborate for me?

Answer 1

They're both forms of 'tener' ('to have').

tiene is the present tense, usually translated as 'has'. E.g. 'el tiene un libro' - 'he has a book'. Only the third person singular has this form.

tendría (note the accent on the i) is the conditional tense. English doesn't have a special verb form for this tense, but a translation often involves the word 'would'. Both the first and third person singular have this form.

Here is an example from Spanish in Texas:

Tendría que decir es un acento más pegado al mexicano… por la frontera.

I would have to say it is an accent that is more similar to the Mexican one… because of the border.