What does haber mean
What does haber mean
6 Answers
I have another guess:
haber...wrong spelling of "a ver", you would not believe how many natives get this wrong!
One thing you have to be careful of when using "haber" is that if it's the present tense, it's always singular. You would say "Hay un gato" or "Hay cien gatos". But if it's the pluscoamperfecto you have to conjugate. You would say "Yo he ido al cine hoy" or "Ellos no han ido al cine hoy".
What you're saying (or want to say) is correct but the way you say it is somewhere between misleading and wrong.
"Haber" can be conjugated in all tenses and its meaning does not depend on the tense. "Haber" can be/is used in two different ways: 1) to predicate/assert existence (similar to one use of "to be" in English), in which case it's always 3rd pers. singular (in various tenses) and 2) as an auxiliary (helping) verb (similar to one use of "to have" in English) to form the compound tense (tiempo compuesto) of some other verb (the one that it is "helping").
Existence: Hubo tres personas / Habrá muchas personas / Había mucha gente / etc. (none of which is in the present tense)
Auxiliary: Hemos visto. / Hayas visto. / Habrán visto. / etc. In these cases "haber" is the 1st pers. plu. present indicative / 2nd pers. sing. present subjunctive / 3rd pers. plu. future. However, in these cases the description of the person/number/tense/voice refer to the auxiliary, (haber) which , in all cases, is being used to form a compound tense of some other verb.
Haber can be "to be" (i.e., There is a dog = Hay un perro) Haber can be used for the pluscoamperfecto tense, which is to say "someone has" (i.e., I have read that book already = Ya he leido ese libro)
One thing you have to be careful of when using "haber" is that if it's the present tense, it's always singular. You would say "Hay un gato" or "Hay cien gatos". But if it's the pluscoamperfecto you have to conjugate. You would say "Yo he ido al cine hoy" or "Ellos no han ido al cine hoy".
You can also use it to say there has been...
Ha habido un accidente...
There has been an accident.
"Haber" is the infinitive of two different conjugated structures in Spanish.
"Hay" (there is, there are) "Había (there was/there were) and "Habrá" (there will be) all are forms of "haber". You can actually use the infinitive itself in structure like: "Tiene que haber..." (there has to be) . "Haber" is also the infinitive of the auxiliary verb in the perfect tenses. For example: "He hablado" (I have talked), "Había hablado" I had talked, "Habré hablado" (I will have talked). You can use the infinitive itself in structures such as: "Tengo que haber hablado" (I have to have talked), etc.
I hope this helps!
