This study examines empirically how the three main posture verbs in Dutch, i. e. liggen ('to lie'), zitten ('to sit') and staan ('to stand'), are translated into Spanish in presentational contexts. From the analysis of a translation corpus, it turns out that even though the most common translation of the three posture verbs is haber ('there be'), its frequency decreases considerably in favor of tener ('to have') in the case of zitten. Based on a detailed analysis of their respective semantic and pragmatic properties, it is argued that tener appears as soon as there is an « impact » relation between the object and its location, whereas haber expresses genuine containment. Close analysis reveals that it is chiefly the categorical nature of tener that triggers its use as a translation of zitten.