The difference between hay y ahí
Hola.
I have a small question.
I would just like to know the difference between Hay and Ahí, and when to use either in a sentence. They both mean "There", no?
¡Gracias mis amigos!
3 Answers
Hay means "there is" or "there are" while ahí means there as in "over there". Hay muchas cosas ahí. There are many things there.
Hay is a special form of haber and literally means "It has." Hay is used in place of English's "there is / are" (which has nothing to do with location but is a general way to state somethings exists). Ahí is all about location.
There are flowers there => It has flowers there => Hay flores ahí.
Just to make another example, Germans use "Es gibt" (It gives, literally) in the same way we would use "there is / are." (In German, es is a pronoun, not a verb)
There are flowers there => It gives flowers there => Es gibt blumen da
.
Again, these are just ways various languages have developed to state, in more conversational tones, that something exists. Location need not be implied at all...
There are flowers there = Flowers exist there (only the second "there" indicates location)
There are flowers that need little water = Flowers that need little water exist
Hay flores ahí = Existen flores ahí (Only ahí indicates location)
Hay flores que necesitan poco agua = Existen flores que necesitan poco agua
.
Hay can also be in preterite, subjunctive, conditional and the like to mean things such as "there were", "there would be", etc. For these other tenses, I believe you just use the 3rd person singular of haber in the appropriate tense.
(preterite) There were flowers there, but not now. => It had flowers there, but not now => Hubo flores ahí, pero ahora no.
(conditional) There would still be flowers there, but Pedro removed them => It would still have flowers there, but Pedro removed them => Ya habría flores ahí, pero Pedro las sacó.
(subjunctive) I hope there are flowers there => I hope it has flowers there => Espero que haya flores ahí.
(imperfect) There was a party going on when it happened => It was having a party when it happened => Había una fiesta cuando sucedió.
(These last four examples may be really bad Spanish.)
I don't believe hay can be used in the progressive tenses, however. One could not say, for example, estaba habiendo or está habiendo. I believe one would use imperfect (había) and simple present (hay) respectively.
Great answer by Jeezzle 
I just had to say....you always have the coolest profile pics Silent Hero!
