Ha vs. Hay Can anyone explain why these are both 3rd person singular forms of haber?
In the present tense translation of haber there are two 3rd person singular forms ha and hay. I understand that "hay" means there is or there are and "ha" is typically used in the present perfect, what I don't understand is how a verb can have two conjugations for 3rd person singular.
Thanks so much!! Amanda
6 Answers
Forget that they look the same.
They are not.
Haber is an auxillary verb.
Hay only oocurs in the sense of there are, there is, there were, there might be, there used to be.. etc.
I'm totally hopeless on grammar. I find it better to concentrate on what things mean and how to say them. This is apurely personal method and we all vary in our way of learning. If you get too bogged down by grammar early on you may find it very difficult to get talking, that is my only bit of advise. ( Obviously, I myself should have learnt much more grammar earlier.Then I would make less mistakes...)
Gringo and annie both have good answers 
Haber is one of the trickiest verbs out there. Ill explain it a little bit more in detail, even though i'm sure you're already farmiliar with it...
-*Hay* (present tense) is used to say "there is" or "there are."
=No hay ningunos coches en que pueda comprar. There aren't any cars that I can buy.
-*Hay* in the past is *había* which also can mean *had* in a figurative way.
=Había muchas personas a la fiesta. There were many people at the party.
--Or--
Cuando llegaste, ya había cocinado almuerzo. When you arrived, he had already cooked lunch.
-And "ha" is 3rd person meaning *has* in the present.
¿Ella ha muerto? Has she died?
Anyways I think this is the only one verb in Spanish with this kind of conjugation (2 forms in one form.) Like Gringo said, don't preocupy yourself with why, trust me I tried that and got wayy to confused.
What should really blow your mind is that they also have different meanings. Ha is the 3rd person form of Haber used as an auxiliary verb. While hay is the 3rd person form of the verb haber (non-auxiliary) which form is not used in modern Spanish except in the 3rd person forms.
At least that is how I understand it. I agree with Annie. Don't get bogged down in grammar. Just accept it and use it without having to understand why. I believe too much grammar is a hindrance to speaking. Some basic grammar is however, required.
It is actually quite simple. In late Latin, habeo was used impersonally in the third person singular with ibi, as HABET IBI, "there is". This is the origin of the French "il y a" ("it has there" = "there is") and also of the Spanish "hay", which is actually "ha+y (ibi--the same "y" as in French in origin).
In short HAY in Spanish is NOT just the third person singular used impersonally, it is the third person singular impersonal plus "y" (ibi).
Ha and hay, as you said, are both third-person singular conjugations of the verb "haber." "Hay" is the existential form of the verb, whereas "ha," "han," etc. are used to express the auxiliary form. Something sort of similar happens in English: "to be" is typically used as a copula, or a linking verb("I am cold"), but when it is used in such a way as "I think, therefore I am," it refers simply to the existence of the subject, rather than identifying it with any predicate. The spanish "ha" and "hay" are the same idea. They just have two different forms for the two meanings because Spanish is weird. 
Hope this helped.
Adding to ProjectTermina said.
And that's is represented in English by:
There is - There was
There are - There were
Oops, it had been answered by BradyLabuda. 
