Is había used like hay?

Question

Hay = there is/there are.

Does había = there were/there was?

Por la mañana había muchos aviones en el cielo, pero más tarde había sólo una.

Thanks for the help!

Well thanks Tosh - because I have been using "había" like that for years - and no one told me it was wrong. - ian-hill, Sep 19, 2011

Do you mean instead of "hubo"? Yeah, I'll have to remember that, too. :) - Tosh, Sep 19, 2011

Answer 1

Yes. They both stem from haber and there are a whole host of ways to use haber in the "there are were/ will be / would have been". Just like with preterite / imperfect you must know when to use había and when to use hubo....

Thank you... - Tosh, Sep 19, 2011

Answer 2

Yes, hay and había are the same verb but are in different tenses. Había is used as "there were/there was" but only for something that had occurred frequently in the past because it is imperfect. The preterite tense of haber, "hubo", though meaning "there were/there was", is used for something that had occurred just recently. Therefore, in your sentence, it should be "hubo" instead of "había" because it happened recently which is indicated by "Por la mañana" and "mas tarde". I hope this answers your question.

Thank you... I guess I picked a bad sentence for my example. But, then again, I learned something else. - Tosh, Sep 19, 2011

Answer 3

Hubo is used for a specific time frame in the past for example:

Hubo muchos dias de lluvia en julio. There were many rainy days in July.

Whereas Habia is used within an undetermined time frame in the past such as:

Habia mucha gente en la fila antes que yo. There were many people in the queue before me.

Also Habia is the auxiliary verb in the past perfect (pasado perfecto) tense as in:

La lluvia strong texthabia parado cuando llegamos. The rain had stopped when we arrived.

V E R Y helpful answer!! - territurtle, Sep 19, 2011

Thank you! - geouk, Sep 21, 2011