Maybe an additional grammar lesson attached to this exercise?

Question

Hola Inma y equipo, As part of the 'All related grammar and vocab' list for this exercise, would I be right in saying that Inma's excellent lesson, that I've included here, should also be listed?Using tener + participio to express the completion of an action (perífrasis verbal). GraciasClara

Accepted Answer

Hola Clara
Thanks for the observation.
I went back to the dictation and was going to include that lesson to the sentence saying:  "...vi que [la carta] tenía escrito lo siguiente: cinco generaciones de Amalia"
The structure is identical to what we explain in the lesson about tener + participio, but if you think about this specific sentence, this is more of a literal translation: it had [something] written [on it]. I can't see here the sense of accumulation/completion. It's not like we can substitute it for "haber + participio", it wouldn't work. This sentence would be more like this other type of sentence using the verb tener more literally:

La maleta tenía pegada una etiqueta con su nombre. 
The case had a label with her name attached. 
La máquina tiene activada la función de succión.
The machine has the suction mode activated/on.

I imagine this is what we have if the subject is non-animated.
Having said that, maybe a note about this should be added to the lesson saying that we can see the same structure with objects as subjects without that nuance of accumulation/completion. 
Saludos
Inma

Answer

Thank you Clara ... Reading this - has at least persuaded me to give the subject more thought, thereby enhancing my understanding [even if this reply is not directly relevant to the main point being made in this thread].

Focussing on what Inma wrote:

"It's not like we can substitute it for 'haber + participio', it wouldn't work"....

... showed that it can be illuminating, in this topic, to consider two almost identical sentences side by side.

For example, when my Spanish teacher wrote to me saying:

"No tengo decidido si me voy a jubilar", I was puzzled, and just could not understand why she had not said:

"No he decidido si me voy a jubilar".

This^ particular illustration is with a negative - so perhaps it deserves a slightly different interpretation; [my teacher suggested that the 'tengo' version here implies 'obligación'?]

Apparently we will still hear people [incorrectly?] using "tener" as an auxiliary verb as an alternative to "haber" - particularly in Galicia or near the Portuguese border [where it is grammatically correct in those other languages] - e.g. "tengo sido ..." for "I have been ..."