Learn the impersonal usage of the Spanish verb haber
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natalia: Buenos días, me llamo Natalia. |
| Carlos: What’s going on? My name is Carlos. |
| Natalia: “Paying.” |
| Carlos: You know, in today’s lessons, we learn about the verb “haber”. |
| Natalia: And how Jorge got his commission. |
| Carlos: So Naty, all is right in the world in store. |
| Natalia: Definitely sí. I told you, being formal and patient helps in life. |
| Carlos: That it does. Let’s listen to today’s conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| MARTA: Quiero comprar esta blusa. |
| CAJERA: ¿Solamente? |
| MARTA: Sólo ésta, por ahora... |
| CAJERA: Serían veinte mil colones, por favor. |
| MARTA: A ver... creo que no tengo efectivo. |
| CAJERA: No hay problema, aceptamos tarjeta. |
| MARTA: ¡Qué suerte! Gracias. |
| And now, slowly. |
| Una vez más, esta vez lentamente. |
| MARTA: Quiero comprar esta blusa. |
| CAJERA: ¿Solamente? |
| MARTA: Sólo ésta, por ahora... |
| CAJERA: Serían veinte mil colones, por favor. |
| MARTA: A ver... creo que no tengo efectivo. |
| CAJERA: No hay problema, aceptamos tarjeta. |
| MARTA: ¡Qué suerte! Gracias. |
| And now, with the translation. |
| Ahora, incluimos la traducción. |
| MARTA: Quiero comprar esta blusa. |
| MARTA: I want to purchase this blouse. |
| CAJERA: ¿Solamente? |
| CAJERA: Anything else? |
| MARTA: Sólo ésta, por ahora... |
| MARTA: Just that for now. |
| CAJERA: Serían veinte mil colones, por favor. |
| CAJERA: That would be twenty thousand Colones, please. |
| MARTA: A ver... creo que no tengo efectivo. |
| MARTA: Let's see...I think I don't have any cash. |
| CAJERA: No hay problema, aceptamos tarjeta. |
| CAJERA: That's not a problem; we accept credit cards. |
| MARTA: ¡Qué suerte! Gracias. |
| MARTA: Lucky for me! Thanks. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Carlos: Naty, how often do you pay with cash? |
| Natalia: Every single day. |
| Carlos: Oh, that’s right. I am not even trying to be funny. I completely forgot. |
| Natalia: You do. See people, Carlos mocks me because I don’t have a credit card but on the other hand, some people think I am quite smart for not having one. |
| Carlos: Honestly, I was not mocking you. I just was actually making conversation about paying with the card or not. |
| Natalia: Every time the man pulls his credit card, he says “Naty, you should have a credit card.” Any ways, what do you guys think? You can leave us a comment if what do you think on credit cards. Are they smart or a dumb decision? |
| Carlos: Or at least a debit card. |
| Natalia: Well, Carlos, I have a debit card. I just don’t use it. |
| Carlos: You really want to get into that? |
| Natalia: Not really. |
| Carlos: Okay. All right, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for today’s lesson. First we have a verb. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Natalia: “Querer”. |
| Carlos: “To want.” |
| Natalia: “Que-rer”, “querer”. Por ejemplo: “No quiero eso”. |
| Carlos: “I don’t want that.” And now we have an adverb. |
| Natalia: “Solamente”. |
| Carlos: “Only”, “just”, “solely.” |
| Natalia: “So-la-men-te”, “solamente”. Por ejemplo: “Solamente una vez amé en la vida”. |
| Carlos: “Only once, I loved in life.” Next up, we have an adverbial phrase. |
| Natalia: “Por ahora”. |
| Carlos: “For now”, “the time being.” |
| Natalia: “Por a-ho-ra”, “por ahora”. Por ejemplo: “Por ahora, está bien. Pero mañana tendremos que hacer los cambios”. |
| Carlos: “For now it’s all right but tomorrow we will have to make the changes.” Now we have a verb. |
| Natalia: “Ser”. |
| Carlos: “To be.” |
| Natalia: “Ser”, “ser”. Por ejemplo: “¿Eres de los Estados Unidos?” |
| Carlos: “Are you from the United States?” And now a masculine noun. |
| Natalia: “Efectivo”. |
| Carlos: “Cash.” |
| Natalia: “E-fec-ti-vo”, “efectivo”. Por ejemplo: “Tengo efectivo”. |
| Carlos: “I have cash.” And finally a verb. |
| Natalia: “Creer”. |
| Carlos: “To believe”, “to think.” |
| Natalia: “Cre-er”, “creer”. Por ejemplo: “Creo que te puedo ayudar”. |
| Carlos: “I think that I can help you.” Okay, you know what, let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Natalia: Well, the first word we will look at is “querer”. |
| Carlos: “Querer”, “to want.” See now, this is a interesting verb. |
| Natalia: I agree but for argument sake, why do you think it’s interesting? |
| Carlos: Well, like I could say the classic “quiero”, “I want.” |
| Natalia: Which is the example from our conversation, “Quiero comprar esta blusa”. |
| Carlos: “I want to buy the blouse.” But also “te quiero” means... |
| Natalia: “I love you.” Well, “querer” does means “to want” but it also means “love.” |
| Carlos: Well, like specific kinds of love. |
| Natalia: Well, looking at your example, “te quiero”, we have already established that it means “I love you” but your question is now, what kind of love? |
| Carlos: Exactly, like who would I be able to say that too. |
| Natalia: “Te quiero” implies affection, love, care not necessarily lustful. You can say “te quiero” to your mother, father, grandfather, neighbor, anybody. |
| Carlos: Okay, so then what would you say to your girlfriend or boyfriend? |
| Natalia: Well, you could say “te quiero” but if you want to be more towards romantic love, you can use the verb “amar”. |
| Carlos: Okay, so we covered that. How about another sample sentence with “querer”? |
| Natalia: “Quiero que vengas”. |
| Carlos: “I want you to come.” Well, I want our next word to come about. |
| Natalia: The adverb “solamente”. |
| Carlos: “Solamente”. “Only.” |
| Natalia: And we know that how? |
| Carlos: Well, we know that the ending of “mente” is roughly equivalent to the “LY” ending in English. So, “igualmente”, “equally”, “fácilmente”, “easily”, “solamente”, “only”, et cetera, et cetera… |
| Natalia: “Exactamente”. “Exactly.” |
| Carlos: So how was “solamente” used in our conversation? |
| Natalia: “¿Solamente?” “Anything else?” This is a common question when it comes to service hah! |
| Carlos: Yeah, I mean if you are ordering food or buying clothes or clerk or waitress is always going to ask you, “¿Solamente?” |
| Natalia: But here is another example, “Y no solamente eso”. |
| Carlos: That’s funny. |
| Natalia: Why is that funny? |
| Carlos: Because you say it all the time in English, “and not only that…” |
| Natalia: Well, yeah, I do say that a lot. Don’t I? |
| Carlos: Yes, you do, and not only that, we have our next phrase, don’t we? |
| Natalia: Well, “por ahora”. |
| Carlos: “Por ahora”. Now that word class is confusing. |
| Natalia: It’s an adverbial expression. |
| Carlos: Well, when you say it like that, okay it makes it little more clear. So what does it mean? |
| Natalia: Well, okay, I will throw the question right back to you. How was it used in the conversation? |
| Carlos: “Sólo ésta, por ahora”. “That’s it for now.” That was just a continuation of our last example from the conversation. So “por ahora”, “for now”, “for the time being.” |
| Natalia: You actually used this adverbial phrase the other day in English that is. |
| Carlos: When? |
| Natalia: Well, remember when you can’t visit the shop and we had to go to San José. |
| Carlos: Yes. |
| Natalia: You said “since my car is in the shop, we have to take the bus for now.” |
| Carlos: I did, didn’t I. So next time I can just say, “since my car is in the shop, we have to take the bus for now.” |
| Natalia: Next up we have a classic. |
| Carlos: A classic what? |
| Natalia: “Ser”. |
| Carlos: “Ser”. Yes, a fundamental verb in Spanish. |
| Natalia: Well, do you know what it means? |
| Carlos: Of course, it means “to be” but “to be” in terms of permanence. |
| Natalia: “Serían 20.000 colones, por favor”. |
| Carlos: And “that would be 20,000 colons, please.” And Naty, what do we remember about the difference in “ser” and “estar”? |
| Natalia: “Ser” is used to express permanence and “estar” is used to express condition that can change. |
| Carlos: Now, if I remember correctly, we saw our next word before. |
| Natalia: The masculine noun effective. |
| Carlos: Yep and thanks to you, I know that it refers to cash and not being effective. |
| Natalia: Ha ha ha how long did that take you to figure out, Carlos? |
| Carlos: Well, I been for about a year. |
| Natalia: Wow! |
| Carlos: What can I say? Sometimes things don’t come as easily. See if I had someone say to me “a ver, creo que no tengo efectivo”, I would think they were admitting that they weren’t effective. I mean I used to be able to think that. Not now, you know where in Marta’s case, she is just saying she doesn’t think she has cash. |
| Natalia: So you only thought of the related word. |
| Carlos: “Dinero”. Yeah, that’s what I thought of. I mean that is what I think about when I think about money. |
| Natalia: Well, expand your mind, Carlos. Be one with the word. Here is another example “¿Puedo hacer efectivo en cheque?”, “Can I cash in check?” |
| Carlos: That’s almost impossible for me to do here. I can’t get a bank account. |
| Natalia: Carlos, well even I can’t get a bank account in the United States either. |
| Carlos: I don’t think that’s fair. |
| Natalia: Carlos, well listeners, if any of you know or work in a bank, you can do us the favor, please. I am joking. Now Carlos, we have one more word to go. |
| Carlos: And what’s that? |
| Natalia: Well, we have the verb “creer”. |
| Carlos: “Creer”. “To believe.” You know for some reason that is one of those verbs that I was always able to memorize. |
| Natalia: Well, it means “to believe” or “to think.” That’s how we translate it. |
| Carlos: Right. “A ver... creo que no tengo efectivo”. “Let’s see... I think I don’t have any cash”. But wait, Naty, what about “pensar”? I mean, doesn’t that also mean “to think”? |
| Natalia: Yes, it does. But “pensar” is more applied to thinking about something like “Él estaba pensando en sus amigos”. “He was thinking about his friends.” |
| Carlos: Oh, okay, right on where “creer” is more like “thinking” or “believing” something like “¿Y tú qué crees?”, “what do you think?” |
| Natalia: I think you got the difference. |
| Carlos: I think so too and more though like a hope. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Natalia: Okay, today’s grammar point is also one of the most commonly used verbs in Spanish, “haber”, “to have.” |
| Carlos: Yeah. You are right. It is very common and thus very important. |
| Natalia: What’s “haber” first main function? |
| Carlos: That will be an auxiliary verb. |
| Natalia: Uhoo, which is a verb used for all compound verb forms. |
| Carlos: And is that the function we are dealing with today? |
| Natalia: Nope. Actually we are looking at second function. |
| Carlos: Which is... |
| Natalia: “Haber” can be used to express the existence of things, people, actions and events. |
| Carlos: Sounds deep, Naty. |
| Natalia: Well, it’s a little bit more fundamental than it sounds like. For example, “hay un hombre”, “there is a man.” |
| Carlos: Okay, so... |
| Natalia: So when the verb “haber” is used as a verb of existence, it is always conjugated to the impersonal third person. |
| Carlos: Impersonal third person. Check… |
| Natalia: Okay, so for the present tense of the indicative mood, this is “hay”. |
| Carlos: Now is it always “hay”, I mean regardless of the number? |
| Natalia: Regardless of the number of the noun to which this verb refers whether it’s singular or plural, the verb will always be in the third person singular. |
| Carlos: And what is this form again? |
| Natalia: In the present tense of the indicative mood. So the verb “haber” once again becomes “hay”. This is a verb of existence. |
| Carlos: Let’s get some sample sentences down. |
| Natalia: Let me see. If we take the sentence “hay nubes en el cielo”, “there are clouds in the sky”, you can substitute “hay” for “existen”, “exist”, and we can get “clouds exist in the sky.” |
| Carlos: Okay, I get the existence part. |
| Natalia: Well, saying “hay” in this sense is the way of stating the existence of something, someone or someplace et cetera. |
| Carlos: Like in our conversation today, “No hay problema”, “there is not a problem”, which would mean in this case the problem does not exist. It still deals with existence. |
| Natalia: Well, that’s very good actually. |
| Carlos: Or like “Hay una botella de vino en la mesa”. “There is a bottle of wine on the table.” |
| Natalia: Or “hay mariscos en el salteado”, “there are shellfish in the stir fry”, which means you can eat it. |
| Carlos: I know I can eat it. Stop rubbing it in. You always have to rub it in. |
| Natalia: Okay, stop rubbing the credit card in, well… |
| Carlos: I wasn’t here only for conversation. |
| Natalia: So… |
| Carlos: You know what I ate yesterday? |
| Natalia: Not a clue. |
| Carlos: It was a soup called “Frito”. |
| Natalia: You did not understand that there was pig wings in the soup? |
| Carlos: Well, of course I did. I just didn’t want to be rude to the people who are feeding me. |
| Natalia: Oh, okay, well… |
| Carlos: They warned me I guess when they said “hay sesos en la sopa”, but I didn’t really think – I didn’t knew that that’s what it meant. So I just like smiled and said “okay.” |
| Natalia: “Brainies”, “cerebro”, remember that. Okay, since we are on the subject of food, let’s talk “haber” to drinks. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Natalia: Okay. “Hay bebidas para tomar”. |
| Carlos: “There are beverages to drink.” |
| Natalia: So we already said that the form “hay” never changes when “haber” is used as a verb of existence, right? |
| Carlos: I do remember that being stated. |
| Natalia: However it’s meaning depends on whether the noun that exists is singular or plural. |
| Carlos: I see. |
| Natalia: If it’s singular, por ejemplo, “hay una botella de vino”, then it means “there is” – “there is a bottle of wine.” |
| Carlos: And if it’s plural... |
| Natalia: If it’s plural, “hay bebidas”, then it means “there are beverages.” |
| Carlos: So is there anything else we should learn about “hay”, I mean, “hay otra cosa para aprender con ‘hay’”? |
| Natalia: The word “hay” is also used to express obligation in the impersonal level. |
| Carlos: And how does that happen? |
| Natalia: We do this by using “hay”, then the conjunction “que” and then the infinitive of the main verb. |
| Carlos: So… |
| Natalia: So we can say “hay que disfrutar el sol”, which we might translate as “one must enjoy the sun” or “the sun must be enjoyed.” |
| Carlos: Well, that can be translated in another way you know. |
| Natalia: Well, there is not as solid English translation of these kinds of expressions since in English we often use the second person singular, “you”, even though we are not addressing someone directly. Por ejemplo, “You got to enjoy the sun.” |
| Carlos: Translation is interesting like that. |
| Natalia: You know that’s why you always look for the meaning and not the translation. |
Outro |
| Carlos: Well, that is a good tip from Naty and you know what guys, that just about does it for today. Okay, ¡nos vemos! |
| Natalia: ¡Chao! |
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