My understanding is that Tuvo means 'it had', however i've found a
reference where it seems to be used as 'there was'.
De hecho, tuvo un incidente con dos aficionados que le insultaron.
http://www.terra.com/deportes/articulo/html/fox164249.htm

I guess 'it had' and 'there was' are similar concepts in this type of use.
But I would have imagined 'there was' would be 'hay estuvo', probably incorrectly.

Any help with expressing 'there was', or any other interesting
material close to these words is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Patrice

Hello Patrice29-ga,

First, please let me tell you that I?m a native Spanish speaker from Argentina.

In this case, the word ?tuvo? remains the past of ?tener?, as you
already knew it; ?to have?, with its possessive sense with a
figurative nuance here. Maybe the doubt comes from the fact that the
subject of the sentence is omitted, as very frequently happens in
Spanish (we call it ?sujeto tácito? ?tacit subject). Thus, perhaps you
took it as an impersonal sentence, where the verb could refer to a
situation, and so associated it with ?hubo?, translatable as ?there
was?. Actually, the subject of the sentence you ask about is ?he?
(Ronaldo), and the complete translation of your quotation would be:
?In fact, *he* had an incident with two fans who insulted him...?

Actually, I can?t think of any context in which the verb ?tener? in
Spanish would mean ?haber?. Conversely, the Latin root for ?haber?,
?habere?, does mean ?to have?, sense that you can still find in the
substantive ?haber? meaning ?credits? (as opposed to ?debits?), in
other words, ?what you *have*?. Interestingly, both English and
Spanish use as auxiliaries for complex past tenses, verbs that mean
-currently in the former and anciently in the latter- ?to have?
(?have? ? ?haber?). Moreover, their similarity suggests a common root,
despite ?have? comes from old English ?habban?
(http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=have ), and ?haber? from
Latin ?habere?.

I hope this answer has addressed satisfactorily your question. Please
feel free to ask for clarification if needed. Thanks for asking.

Regards,

Guillermo-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by patrice29-ga on 21 Mar 2005 10:07 PST

OK, so 'he had' would make sence also.
However this whole thing has gotten me to wondering how one would express:

'There was an incident with two fans who insulted him'.

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Clarification of Answer by guillermo-ga on 21 Mar 2005 12:56 PST

Hello Patrice29-ga,

Thanks for the rating. As to your request for clarification, it?s just
as Noamn-ga wrote in his/her comment: ?Hubo un incidente con dos
aficionados que le insultaron...? To refine it, you may want to know
that this is how people from Spain say it. Latin Americans would say
?*lo* insultaron? instead of ?le?.

Regards,

Guillermo-ga

I think Guillermo answered your question... You would use "hubo" (the
past-tense for "haber").

'Hubo un incidente con dos aficionados que le insultaron'.