Learn more about using the Spanish impersonal verb meaning "to have"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Dylan: Hola, hola a todos. Habla Dylan, ¿cómo están? |
| Carlos: What’s going on pod101 world? My name is Carlos. In this lesson, you will learn about the verb “haber”. |
| Dylan: The conversation takes place at a ticket counter. |
| Carlos: The conversation is between Jorge and the ticket vendor. |
| Dylan: The speakers are strangers, so they are speaking formally. |
| Carlos: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Vendedor: ¿Sí señor? |
| Jorge: Hola, ¿ustedes venden los tiquetes para el concierto de Vicente? |
| Vendedor: Así es amigo, pero se acaban de llevar los dos últimos. |
| Jorge: Pero mañana habrá más tiquetes, ¿verdad? |
| Vendedor: No señor, se agotaron, no hay más tickets en venta. |
| Jorge: ¡Qué lástima!, ¿ahora qué hago? |
| Salesman: Yes sir? |
| Jorge: Hello, do you sell tickets for the Vicente concert? |
| Salesman: That’s right friend, but they just took the last two. |
| Jorge: But there’ll be more tickets tomorrow…right? |
| Salesman: No sir, they’re sold out; there are no more tickets for sale. |
| Jorge: What a pity! Now what do I do? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Dylan: What do you do Carlos in that situation? |
| Carlos: Well, in the States there are scalpers. You can always buy tickets for an event outside of the event whether it’s a baseball game or concert or something like that. Are there scalpers here? |
| Dylan: Absolutely. |
| Carlos: Real scalpers or they just try to sell you pieces of paper that look like tickets? |
| Dylan: No, no, no I’d say both maybe. |
| Carlos: Hmm well, be aware of that, but guys if you want to go to a concert in Latin America, well Costa Rica talking more specifically, you can always get scalp tickets. |
| Dylan: Yes, you can. |
| Carlos: Okay guys, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Dylan: “Acabar”. |
| Carlos: “To end”, “to finish”, “to complete.” |
| Dylan: “A-ca-bar”, “acabar”. “Últimos”. |
| Carlos: “Last.” |
| Dylan: “Úl-ti-mos”, “últimos”. “Llevar”. |
| Carlos: “To take.” |
| Dylan: “Lle-var”, “llevar”. “Haber”. |
| Carlos: “To have.” |
| Dylan: “Ha-ber”, “haber”. “Agotar”. |
| Carlos: “To exhaust”, “to wear out”, “to use up.” |
| Dylan: “A-go-tar”, “agotar”. “Qué lástima”. |
| Carlos: “What a pity”, “what a shame.” |
| Dylan: “Qué lás-ti-ma”, “qué lastima”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Carlos: Okay guys, let’s have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Dylan: The first word we will look at is “acabar”. |
| Carlos: “Acabar”. “To end”, “to finish.” |
| Dylan: That’s never a good thing. |
| Carlos: You have to look at things as being half full, Dylan. Sometimes it’s good to finish like finishing work. |
| Dylan: No, finishing work is definitely good. |
| Carlos: But when the tickets are finished, it is never a good thing at least not for event goers. |
| Dylan: “Así es amigo, pero se acaban de llevar los dos últimos”. |
| Carlos: “That’s right friend, but they are just the last two.” Ouch! That’s the worst. |
| Dylan: It is really. I mean how frustrating is that? |
| Carlos: Yeah, sold out is one thing but sold out the minute before you get to the door, I can’t think of anything worse. |
| Dylan: Well, let’s look at a sample sentence. |
| Carlos: “Las clases acaban a las 3 de la tarde”. |
| Dylan: “The classes end at 3 in the afternoon.” |
| Carlos: There you go. |
| Dylan: Now which verb do you use more often to express that you are going to finish, “acabar” or “terminar”? |
| Carlos: Well, to be honest, I would have to say that I use “terminar” more. It is the verb that comes from my mind when I think about finishing something. |
| Dylan: Next up, “llevar”, “to take.” |
| Carlos: Now this is an important verb. |
| Dylan: Hah! |
| Carlos: Just wait, I will explain it in a second. How do we hear “llevar” used in today’s conversation? |
| Dylan: Same example, “Así es amigo, pero se acaban de llevar los dos últimos”. |
| Carlos: “That’s right friend but they are just the last two.” |
| Dylan: Now why is “llevar” such an important verb? |
| Carlos: Well, it is one that is used in a lot of restaurants, “para llevar”. |
| Dylan: “For take out.” Yeah, that is pretty common. |
| Carlos: I mean imagine someone from our audience selling in a restaurant and they ask the question to you “¿para llevar?”, now you guys know what it means. |
| Dylan: Well, let’s not limit the meaning to food. |
| Carlos: No, we can’t do that. |
| Dylan: We also use the verb “llevar” to discuss driving. |
| Carlos: What do you mean? |
| Dylan: “Me llevó en coche”. |
| Carlos: “He drove me here.” |
| Dylan: Exactly, but it wasn’t a question. |
| Carlos: Sorry, “he drove me here.” |
| Dylan: Perfect. |
| Carlos: So then a related word would be... |
| Dylan: Well the opposite would be “traer”, “to bring.” |
| Carlos: Right, “llevar, “to take”, and “traer”, “to bring.” |
| Dylan: “Últimos”. |
| Carlos: “Últimos”, “last.” Now we should have said this adjective for the last vocab word. |
| Dylan: Yes, but it’s not the end of the conversation. What can you do? |
| Carlos: That’s true. |
| Dylan: We already heard our example twice. |
| Carlos: “Los dos últimos”, “the last two.” |
| Dylan: Now since “últimos” is an adjective, what changed? |
| Carlos: Its number has to give with “dos”, “two”, which is plural so we had “últimos”. |
| Dylan: Now if we had one, what would we say? |
| Carlos: One would be “último”. |
| Dylan: You are getting direct concordance. |
| Carlos: Well, come on Dylan, this wasn’t exactly a difficult example. |
| Dylan: Hey, don’t get yourself short but let’s look at another singular example. |
| Carlos: “Juan es el último en salir de la casa”. |
| Dylan: “Juan is the last to leave the house.” Now plural. |
| Carlos: “Estos son los últimos minutos de la clase”. |
| Dylan: “These are the last minutes of class.” Now are you happy with yourself? |
| Carlos: Yes, I am, immediately. |
| Dylan: Good. Now what is the opposite of “último”? |
| Carlos: A word we just studied in the last couple of lessons, “primero”, “first.” |
| Dylan: Good. Now let’s go into the future. |
| Carlos: Hah! |
| Dylan: What is the singular form of “haber” in the future? |
| Carlos: “Habrá”. |
| Dylan: As in “pero mañana habrá más tiquetes, ¿verdad?” |
| Carlos: “But there will be more tickets tomorrow, right?” |
| Dylan: He sounds so hopeful. |
| Carlos: Almost pleading. |
| Dylan: Well, that is the difficult situation to be in. |
| Carlos: Here, I wonder how long they waited. |
| Dylan: Well, either way, let’s think of another example of “haber” in the future tense. |
| Carlos: “Mañana habrá conciertos en el parque”. |
| Dylan: “Tomorrow there will be concerts in the park.” |
| Carlos: Now “haber” is a very important verb to know and to understand since this is generally used as an auxiliary verb as well. |
| Dylan: Right, but another verb that is not an auxiliary verb that is related is “existir”. |
| Carlos: “To exist”? |
| Dylan: That’s right. |
| Carlos: What’s next? |
| Dylan: “Agotar”. |
| Carlos: “To exhaust”, “to wear out”, “to use up.” |
| Dylan: But in this case, “sold out.” |
| Carlos: Loose translation I guess. |
| Dylan: Well, let’s look at a sample sentence to make it clear. |
| Carlos: “Ayer fui a la librería pero no habían libros. Se agotaron”. |
| Dylan: “Yesterday I went to the bookstore but there weren’t any books. They ran out.” |
| Carlos: What kind of bookstore is that? |
| Dylan: Not sure. |
| Carlos: Now could I also use “terminar”? |
| Dylan: Sure, “terminar” is definitely a related word. |
| Carlos: Last but not least. |
| Dylan: An expression that makes me think of old ladies. |
| Carlos: Oh, yeah. |
| Dylan: “¡Qué lástima!”. |
| Carlos: What a pity, what a shame. |
| Dylan: Well, that’s how you know that Gorge is not happy with the situation but you have to say “¡qué lástima!” with a certain tone. |
| Carlos: What like “¡qué lástima!” |
| Dylan: Exactly. |
| Carlos: So I could say “no puedo ir a la fiesta, ¡qué lástima!” |
| Dylan: Yes, but then they call you a whining little girl. |
| Carlos: No need to call names, Dylan. |
| Dylan: I am just saying. |
| Carlos: Now remind us what’s on our grammar point today. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Dylan: Now we delve into “haber”. Now let’s find out why this verb deserves a grammar section all its own. We have seen that the verb “haber” has two main functions and what are they? |
| Carlos: Well, “haber” first function is as we’ve stated an auxiliary verb we use for all compound verb tenses. For example, you have said, she has called et cetera. It also expresses the existence of things, people, actions and events. Example, there is a book, there are four people at the table. |
| Dylan: Good. When we use “haber” as a verb of existence also called an impersonal verb or in Spanish “un verbo terciopersonal”, we always conjugate it to the third person singular. |
| Carlos: Always? |
| Dylan: Always. This can be confusing since we have stressed in so many other places the importance of agreement. However with this verb, the noun maybe in the plural even though the verb is in the singular. |
| Carlos: Oh well, that makes it all better. |
| Dylan: Moreover let’s not confuse person with tense. |
| Carlos: I wouldn’t dream of it. |
| Dylan: Even though we always conjugate “haber” to the third person singular, when we use it as a verb of existence, it could be conjugated to different tenses. Let’s look at how we conjugate it to the future tense of the indicative mood. |
| Carlos: Sounds good. Now what is the verb form in the future tense? |
| Dylan: The verb form in the future tense is “habrá”. In English, we will translate this as “there” plus “will be.” Let’s take a closer look at how we form this. |
| Carlos: Infinitive form “haber”, stem plus changing “hab-” plus “-er” future ending “-a”. So what do we do in order to form the future, Dylan? |
| Dylan: In order to form the future, we will drop the vowel of the infinitive ending “e” and then add the future ending after the “ar”. |
| Carlos: So that would make “hab-” plus “r” plus “a” equals “habrá”. |
| Dylan: Remember that this is the third person singular of the future tense in the indicative mood and we will use it whenever the noun is singular or plural. |
| Carlos: Okay, okay this is a lot of information, Dylan. Let’s get some sample sentences. |
| Dylan: “Habrá una gran fiesta”. |
| Carlos: “There will be a big party.” |
| Dylan: “Habrá muchos taxis”. |
| Carlos: “There will be many taxis.” |
| Dylan: “Habrá un profesor”. |
| Carlos: “There will be one professor.” |
| Dylan: “Habrá muchos estudiantes”. |
| Carlos: “There will be many students.” |
| Dylan: Remember, this is one of the exceptions of the rule of agreement or concordance. Usually a verb and its subject agree in person and number. |
| Carlos: I thought that was always… |
| Dylan: However here, when the subject is plural, they will not agree. For example, “habrá varias personas”, “there will be many people.” It may take a little while to get used to seeing this and as you learn, be sure to make your subjects and verbs agree in other cases. You may find yourself saying “habrán varias personas”, which is grammatically incorrect though very much understandable. |
| Carlos: Well, thank you for warning me for future mistakes. |
| Dylan: It’s also very important to remember that we do not exclusively use this form of “habrá” for the future tense of the indicative mood when we employ “haber” as a verb of existence. |
| Carlos: So when else do we use it? |
| Dylan: Well we also use it in the future perfect as in “I will have spoken”, “I will have eaten”, etcetera. When we use it like this, it’s not confined to the third person singular, but it rather uses all of the future forms of the verb “haber” plus the past participle of the main verb. In this case, we use the verb “haber” as an auxiliary verb. Now consider this. |
| Carlos: Okay, so it’s the sample sentences for us. |
| Dylan: “Yo habré hablado”. |
| Carlos: Uh conjugation, “I will have spoken.” |
| Dylan: “Tú habrás hablado”. |
| Carlos: “You will have spoken.” |
| Dylan: “Él habrá hablado”. |
| Carlos: “He will have spoken.” |
| Dylan: “Nosotros habremos hablado”. |
| Carlos: “We will have spoken.” |
| Dylan: “Vosotros habréis hablado”. |
| Carlos: “You all will have spoken.” |
| Dylan: “Ellos habrán hablado”. |
| Carlos: “They will have spoken.” |
Outro |
| Carlos: And with that, we have spoken, and you know what guys, that just about does it for today. |
| Dylan: ¡Hasta luego! |
| Carlos: Nos vemos, ¡chao! |
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