Hay There is There are: Spanish Lesson 12

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This is the twelfth lesson in our beginner level Spanish course and we will look at the Spanish verb Hay There is There are. 

This is a very useful and easy to use Spanish verb that translates to There is or There are in English. We are going to practice using Hay There is There are to describe different things in a town or city. First let’s introduce some new useful vocabulary:

Other Spanish vocabulary for describing towns and cities can be found in Spanish Lesson 10 Locations.

La plaza: square
El parque: park
La papelera: litter bin
El monumento: monument
La estatua: statue
El parking: cark park
La torre: tower
El puerto: port
El puente: bridge
El semáforo: traffic lights
La señal: traffic sign
El túnel: tunnel
La fuente: fountain
El cruce de peatones: pedestrian crossing
El buzón: post box
La rotonda: roundabout
La farola: streetlight
La acera: pavement

Hay There is There are Puente
Caminito del Rey bridge in Malaga

Let’s see some example sentences where Hay is used to describe towns and cities in Spanish with this vocabulary:

Hay un puente bonito en Málaga llamado ‘Caminito del Rey’: There is a beautiful bridge in Málaga called ‘Caminito del Rey’.
Hay un puerto interesante en Cádiz: There is an interesting port in Cádiz.
Hay un fuente impresionante en Barcelona llamado ‘La fuente Mágica de Montjuic’: There is an impressive fountain in Barcelona called ‘La fuente Mágica de Montjuic’.
Hay un parque grande en Madrid llamado ‘El Retiro’: There is a big park in Madrid called ‘El Retiro’.

You may also choose to use Tener To have and make similar descriptions such as Madrid tiene un parque grande llamado ‘El Retiro’ (Madrid has a big park called ‘El Retiro’).

As is always the case with Spanish, making questions and negative sentences is very simple. To remind you of what we first learned in Spanish Lesson 4, you add No before the verb to make a negative sentence and with questions you simply make the intonation of a question when you are talking and use question marks when you are writing.

For example:

¿Hay un túnel en la ciudad? (Is there a tunnel in the city?): Sí, hay un túnel (Yes there is a tunnel) / No hay un túnel (No there isn’t a tunnel).
¿Hay estatuas famosas en la ciudad? (Are there famous statues in the city?): Sí, hay estatuas famosas (Yes there are famous statues) / No hay estatuas famosas (No there are not famous statues).

That is all for this lesson about Hay There is There are. We recommend that you practice using this new and very useful Spanish verb to make sentences describing your own home town or city or a favourite holiday destination. You can also practice using the Spanish verbs Tener To have and Estar To be to make further descriptions of what the town or city has/doesn’t have and where it is located.

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