What is the differnces in the use of the verbs "haber" and "tener"? When do you use one and not the other?
By Me-as-a-T... Best Answer
Haber is an auxiliary (helper) verb. Almost the only time you use it is with another verb in the participio (sorry, can't remember the english word! participle?) , such as "I have seen" (He visto), "He had written" (Había escrito), etc. (The other time you would use it is in the impersonal "hay", which means "there is" or "there are".) Tener means "to have" in the sense of to possess something, to have to do something, and also has many idiomatic uses (see some here:
http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/trans... and here:
http://www.drlemon.net/grammar/tener.htm... Other Answer
Tener you use for like "I have a rock in my hand." Haber you would use for "There is a rock in my hand."
haber is "to catch", tener is "to have"
Tener comes from the verb to have
for example: "Juan tiene algo"
Haber is having done something
for example: "Juan hizo algo"