Locating objects in Spanish here are two verbs you can use to locate objects (or people) in Spanish: el verbo estar and el verbo haber. You may already know the verb estar from this lesson, in which we saw that one of its uses is to express location or

position. Don’t panic, I think you’ll be able to tell the difference between haber and estar much easier than the troublesome ser/estar. The use is actually quite similar to the way you’d say it in English, so most of the times you can get away with a literal translation.

Let’s see how to conjugate them in the present tense.

When do we use each of them? We use estar to locate a person or an object if the noun is accompanied by a defi-nite or a possessive article:

Mi hermano está en su habitación – My brother is in his room

Las herramientas están en un cajón – The tools are in a drawer

Los papeles están en el suelo – The papers are on the floor

T

Yo estoy Tú estás Él está

Nosotros estamos Ustedes están

Ellos están

verbo estar

At this point we’re not interested in its full conjugation (which is used, mainly, as an auxiliary to conjugate compound tenses).

For the purpose of this lesson, stick with the impersonal hay, which direct translation in

English would be there is/there are.

verbo haberYo he Tú has Él ha

Nosotros hemos Ustedes han

Ellos han

BUT

On the other hand, hay is used with nouns that come accompanied by an indefinite article, no article or certain adverbs:

Hay mucha gente en el supermercado – There is a lot of people in the supermarket

No hay personas interesadas en esto – There aren’t people interested in this

Hay dos baños en la casa – There are two bathrooms in the house

Hay un libro sobre la mesa – There is a book on the table

In the first example the noun comes accompanied by an adverb of quantity (mucha). In the second one there is no article. In “hay dos baños”, third example, there is what we call an adverbio numeral. And in the last example the noun comes with an indefinite article.

But most importantly, have you noticed the equivalence between Estar and the verb To Be; and Hay and There is/There are?

As an native English speaker, I think this can make your life easier when using these two verbs.

Time to practise Let’s see if you can figure out which of these two verbs fit in the following sentences (find the key on the right hand side).

En la habitación [ ] dos sillones y una mesa There are two armchairs and a table

hay

¿Dónde [ ] tu padre? Where is your father?

está

No [ ] nada interesante en la televisión There is nothing interesting on television

hay

Mi novia [ ] en el parque paseando al perro My girlfriend is in the park taking the dog for a stroll

está

En la jungla [ ] animales peligrosos There are dangerous animals in the jungle

hay

En la clase [ ] veinte alumnos There are twenty students in the classroom

hay

[ ] mucha fruta en el frutero There is a lot of fruit in the fruit basket

hay

key

So hopefully now you’re less likely to mix up these two verbs when it comes to lo-cate things in Spanish. Keep up with the good job and I hope to see you around in future lessons.

¡Hasta la próxima clase! Jose.

El gato [ ] debajo del coche The cat is under the car

está

¿Cuántos gatos [ ] en esta calle? How many cats are there in this street?

está

Los vecinos no [ ] en casa The neighbours aren’t at home

están

[ ] dos baños y los dos [ ] en la planta de arriba There are two bathrooms and both of them are upstairs

hay están

[ ] dos tenedores sobre la mesa There are two forks on the table

hay

Las cucharas [ ] en la mesa también The spoons are on the table as well

están

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