Hay (there is / there are)

A1 Hay 7 / 49

In short

Hay means “there is” and “there are”. It is a single, invariable form of the verb haber that you use to say that something exists or is present, without pointing to a specific, already-known thing.

The rule

hay is a special impersonal form - it has no subject and it never changes for number. The same word works for one thing or many:

Hay un libro en la mesa. / Hay tres libros en la mesa.

Use hay to introduce or count things - so it goes with words that leave the thing unspecified:

an indefinite article: Hay un banco cerca.
a number: Hay cinco personas.
no article - uncountable or plural (Hay agua. Hay problemas.), or a singular noun naming an activity or service rather than one item of it: Hoy hay clase. En el pueblo no hay farmacia. (“no pharmacy service at all”; no hay una farmacia would count them).
a quantifier: Hay mucho tráfico. Hay algunas tiendas.

Do not use hay with a definite article, a possessive, a demonstrative, or a name. Those point to a known thing, and to say where a known thing is you use estar (Lesson 6):

exists / new to the listener -> hay	known / specific -> estar
Hay un supermercado aquí.	El supermercado está aquí.
Hay una farmacia cerca.	La farmacia está cerca.
¿Hay un baño? / ¿Dónde hay un baño? (any one)	¿Dónde está el baño? (the one we know)

Only the present is hay. In other tenses you use the ordinary third-person singular of haber, and it still stays singular no matter how many things there are:

Tense	Form	English
Present	hay	there is / there are
Imperfect	había	there was / there were
Preterite	hubo	there was / there were (an event)
Future	habrá	there will be
Present perfect	ha habido	there has been

Forms & patterns

Choosing between hay and estar:

Question	Answer verb
Does it exist? / How many are there?	hay (+ un/una, number, quantifier, or no article)
Where is the specific one?	estar (+ el/la/los/las, name, possessive)

hay + noun is always the same shape: hay + (quantity) + noun. There is nothing to conjugate for singular vs plural.

Examples

Español	English
Hay un supermercado cerca de aquí.	There is a supermarket near here.
¿Cuántas personas hay en la clase?	How many people are there in the class?
Hay mucho tráfico esta mañana.	There is a lot of traffic this morning.
No hay leche en la nevera.	There is no milk in the fridge.
En Madrid hay muchos museos.	In Madrid there are many museums.
Había mucha gente en la fiesta.	There were a lot of people at the party.
Mañana habrá una reunión.	Tomorrow there will be a meeting.
El libro está en la mesa.	The book is on the table.

Common mistakes

Hay el libro en la mesa -> El libro está en la mesa - a specific, known thing (with el) takes estar, not hay.
Han muchos coches -> Hay muchos coches - hay never turns plural; one form covers both numbers.
Hayn tres personas -> Hay tres personas - there is no such word; it is always hay.
¿Dónde hay el baño? -> ¿Dónde está el baño? - to ask where a definite place is, use estar.
Habían muchas personas -> Había muchas personas - even in the past, haber stays singular; it does not agree with the noun.
Hay mi coche aquí -> Mi coche está aquí - a possessive marks a known thing -> estar.

Tips

Think of hay as “there exists” - it presents something for the first time; estar locates something already known.
hay is frozen: never add -n, never make it plural, whatever follows it.
If you can put “the”, “my”, or a name in front of the noun, switch to estar.
dónde takes either verb: ¿Dónde hay una farmacia? asks for any one there is, ¿Dónde está la farmacia? for the one you both mean - what made ¿Dónde hay el baño? wrong was el, not dónde.
Past and future still use one singular form: había, hubo, habrá - resist the very common (but non-standard) habían.