Quedar and Haber

Question

I have been reading some articles in Spanish and I find it hard to get what the sentence is conveying whenever the verbs Quedar and Haber (well, two of the many verbs) are used. I know Quedar means to be left, to stay or to remain and Haber is to have but I think those are not always the case.

I'd like to ask for some assistance. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

This is potentially a large subject.

Haber

It is used to construct some verb tenses eg he comido or earlier in time había comido

haber de used for should [note other verbs are used more often]

Lots of the time it is used in the third person:

Hay = there is/there are Don't forget haya, hubo, habia etc]

hay que = have to

No hay .. there are no .. we don't have [I heard this a lot in Cuba]

check word reference when there are other constructions you don't understand. You don't need to learn them all at once

quedar/quedarse

This is extremely versatile. I remember learning it in relation to meeting people and later using verbs of change. This infographic helps:

Sometimes it is used like gustar ie 3rd person only.

We have had various lessons and here are some helpful links, but it may be too advanced for you at the moment. I started noting any sentence I found when reading then worked out which construction they were.

1. This is entirely in Spanish

hispanoteca

1. Use of quedar/ quedarse includes English

blog English/Spanish

1. Explanation in Spanish includes a test [answers at end of article]

extranjeros

1. A song [very colloquial] where it is used:

Los Planetos Un Buen Día

If you have got this far you will know it can mean to have [like haber] or to suit these are used in the third person

Check out the entries on word reference - do not try and cram too much too early in your language learning

Thanks, Mardle! - TheMap, Jun 12, 2016

is it just me or is there a grammar mistake in one of the hacerse examples "tu hijo se he hecho mayor"? Shouldn't it be "se ha hecho mayor"? - cmusba, Jul 12, 2016

Answer 2

By reading your definitions of the words it seems to me you understand the meaning perfectly, so, I think you mean more like when someone grabs a box of cookies and says "Quedan cinco galletas" or "Hay cinco galletas" that being the case, both are correct and it makes really no difference. If you could post the sentences that you read, it would be nice.

Will do. Thanks, Saiya6cit! - TheMap, Jun 12, 2016