Hay I

Function of hay

There is a sort of magical word in Spanish that allows you to express “there is” and “there are,” all in one syllable. This word is hay.

Using hay is super easy. It doesn’t matter whether there is one thing or ten thousand, or whether the things are masculine or feminine. Just use hay.

Using hay in conversation

Let’s say you see three bears walking down the street (the word for “bear” in Spanish is oso). What do you say to your pal? “¡Hay tres osos!” (There are three bears!). Then you see five ducks (“duck” is pato) — “¡Hay cinco patos!” (There are five ducks!). And then a cat — “¡Hay un gato!” (There is a cat!).

Well, what happens if your friend has terrible hearing and eyesight (maybe he is your grandfather)? He keeps asking you questions about what you see. This is where the word cuántos comes into play.

Cuántos is an important question word. It means “how many” or “how much.” There are two tricky things about cuántos. The first is the accent mark. Don’t forget it! The really tricky part, however, is that cuántos must agree with the things you are asking about in gender. So if the noun is masculine, cuántos is fine. But if the noun is feminine, you must use cuántas instead.

One more thing about asking questions before we move on. Take a look at this statement: "There are three bears." Hay tres osos. Notice that osos follows hay. In a question, this structure is reversed: osos (or whatever the thing is) will come before hay. The same is true in English. “How many giraffes are there?” “There are three giraffes.” Notice that in the question, “giraffes” comes first, but in the answer, “there are” comes first instead. Here is a quick example:

¿Cuántos libros hay? (How many books are there?)

Hay seis libros. (There are six books.)

Now let’s try a full conversation with hay. Take a look at the picture below, forgive my lack of artistic ability, and see what you and your grandfather have to say about the scene.