There hasn't been.....
How would you say something like "There hasn't been any coffee in the cafeteria for awhile"? No ha habido cafe en mucho tiempo? The "ha habido" sounds wierd, its a combination of two forms of "haber" together. Any ideas? Thanks!!
8 Answers
A student last week said "call up, hang up, beat up, stand up" What the heck does "up" have to do with these actions''!!
A wonderful introduction to what does "se" mean in "se va", "se calla", or "se acuerda".
...English speakers... typically have no clue how inconsistent, illogical, and "confusing" modern English grammar, construction, and syntax really are.
I volunteer as a teacher of English as a Second Language (all of my students are Brazilians who came to our town to work in the fishing industry), and I get a lot of questions about this "inconsistent, illogical, and confusing" language! It's incredible how crazy English can be.
A student last week said "call up, hang up, beat up, stand up" What the heck does "up" have to do with these actions''!! 
Very true. English speakers, particularly Americans who have never been exposed to learning other languages, typically have no clue how inconsistent, illogical, and "confusing" modern English grammar, construction, and syntax really are. I mean this from a linguistic standpoint, not to down my language.
It is difficult to break students of the "but in English we don't do it that way, we do it this way" objections to the grammar/syntax of other languages.
For me, it is helpful to note the contrasts; for some reason the contrasts serve as a mnemonic device in my mind, whereas for many they are an obstacle, due to the fact, I guess, that they cannot get beyond the idea that anything that is different is "wrong."
"I have had enough"
Funny how people perceive odd constructions in a foreign language but not in their own.
True: you don't start to analyse how 'peculiar' your own language is until you have to try to answer questions about it and explain how it works.
Funny how people perceive odd constructions in a foreign language but not in their own.
Shouldn't be funny. What about (a fairly old quotation/phrase), "First caste out the beam in thine own eye (before offering to remove the mote from the eye of another).
The "ha habido" sounds wierd, its a combination of two forms of "haber" together.
"I have had enough"
Funny how people perceive odd constructions in a foreign language but not in their own.
As Heidi said, it is correct, and people use it every now and then. However, you're more likely to find sentences like:
Hace mucho que ho hay café en la tienda.
The verb "haber" used for existence, you have:
Hay
Ha habido
Había
Había habido
Hubo
Hubo habido
Habrá
Habrá habido
Habría
Habría habido
HI gt, you are right, good job. 
No ha habido café en la tienda hace tiempo.
this construction is correct even though rather unusual. We would probably use the present simple here.
