When do you use hay, estar, and ser?
When do you use hay, estar, and ser? (Hay vs. Estar and Estar vs. Ser) These three really confuse me, and I constantly get them mixed up. Is there a rule or trick to remember when to use these? I know the DOCTOR and PLACE thing, but when hay and estar come up when I try to make a sentence, I always get them wrong. Help!!
4 Answers
Hay (present tense, impersonal Haber) means there is, there are. It denotes existence; not location.
Hay tres libros. (There are three books. It says nothing about where they are located; just that they exist)
Hay tres libros encima de la mesa.
There are three books on top of the desk. (the prepositional phrase encima de la mesa serves as an adverbial phrase telling you where or the location of the books; not the verb hay.)
Los tres libros están encima de la mesa.
La ciudad de Boston está en el estado de Massachusettes.
España está en el oeste de Europa.
The verb estar is used to denote the location (not their existence) of physical objects including geographical objects. (non-physical objects like the party, the meeting, the reunion, use Ser for denoting the location)
Hay una reunión esta tarde. (existence)
La reunión es en la oficina del Señor Smith. (location).
If it helps you to remember, then, estar (3rd person, it) is translated as is or are, but hay is always there is or there are; never just is or are.
When do you use hay, estar, and ser?
The closest to "ser" in Korean is ??: a copulative verb.
On the other hand, ?? is sometimes "estar", sometimes "hay", sometimes "tener", but there is a similar problem when translating into English anyway. If something can be identified or it has been introduced in the conversation, it is "estar"; if it is not identified, it is probably "hay", and if it belongs to someone, it is "tener".
P.D. All that, assuming that those verbs are as close as I think they are to their Japanese counterparts da and aru.
R: En españa hay muchos tipos de colegios. (same) Están los colegios públicos, que son (son=understood too) los colegios de estado. y ta l y cual...
Can someone please explain this están, because in English I would still be saying 'There are'?
Se my explanation above: when you say "hay", they have not been put into context. After that, you continue with "estar" to provide more information about the same items. You could, of course, assume that the other person still does not have enough information to identify them, and say "Hay colegios públicos y hay ...bla bla bla".
R: En españa hay muchos tipos de colegios. (same) Están los colegios públicos, que son (son=understood too) los colegios de estado. y ta l y cual...
Can someone please explain this están, because in English I would still be saying 'There are'?
Muchas gracias. Estoy confundida. :/
I'd like to ask a bit more about this - I thought I understood it, and Gfreed's explanation makes perfect sense.
However....a friend lent me her GCSE distance learning course to work through, essentially it's revision for me because I've already covered the grammar.
This has got me all confused about hay/estar again, see what you make of this....
P: ¿Qué tipos de colegios hay en españa? (Great, I would expect 'hay')
R: En españa hay muchos tipos de colegios. (same) Están los colegios públicos, que son (son=understood too) los colegios de estado. y ta l y cual...
Can someone please explain this están, because in English I would still be saying 'There are'?
Muchas gracias. Estoy confundida. :/
