The verbs "haber" and "tener" are easily distinguished, but they may pose a problem for learners of Spanish who speak other Romance languages (where the cognates of "haber" and "tener" are used differently), for English speakers (where "have" is used as a verb and as an auxiliary), and others. "Haber" derives from Latin "habeō",; with the basic meaning of "to have". "Tener" derives from Latin "teneō", with the basic meaning of "to hold", "to keep". As "habeō" began to degrade and become reduced to just ambiguous monosyllables in the present tense, the Iberian Romance languages (Spanish, Gallician-Portuguese, and Catalan) restricted its use and started to use "teneō" as the ordinary verb expressing having and possession.