En resumen (the short version)
- Hay brings something new into the conversation: Hay una farmacia en la plaza (There's a chemist's in the square).
- Estar says where something is once you both know which one you mean: La farmacia está en la plaza (The chemist's is in the square).
- The word after the verb usually decides for you: un, numbers and mucho go with hay; el, mi and names go with estar.
✌🏼 ¡Hola aventurero!
Look at these two sentences:
Hay una farmacia en la plaza.
La farmacia está en la plaza.
Same chemist's, same square, both correct. But a Spanish speaker uses them at completely different moments in a conversation 🤔
English hides the difference, because "there's a chemist's" and "the chemist's is" feel like two ways of saying the same thing. In this post I'll show you how hay vs estar really works, with one picture and a few tables, the visual way I explain grammar in my Visual Spanish Grammar Book.
Hay introduces, estar locates
Picture a theatre stage 🎭
Hay is the moment something walks onto the stage for the first time. Until now, the audience didn't know it existed.
Estar is for something that's already on stage. Everyone knows which one you mean, so you just say where it's standing.
| Hay | Estar | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Brings something new on stage | Says where a known thing is |
| The question it answers | Is there one? What is there? | Where is it? |
| Example | Hay un mercado en el centro. (There's a market in the centre.) | El mercado está en el centro. (The market is in the centre.) |
Teacher bit 🤓 Hay comes from the verb haber, and in this use it has no subject at all. Nobody is "doing" the hay. That's why it never changes, whether there's one thing or fifty: hay un bar, hay cincuenta bares.
Estar does have a subject (the thing you're placing), so it changes to match it: el bar está, los bares están.
When you describe a place, hay usually comes first and estar comes after. En mi calle hay una panadería. La panadería está al lado del banco. First you bring it on stage, then you say where it's standing.
The little words that choose for you
Good news: most of the time you don't need to think about the stage at all. The word straight after the verb tells you which one you need.
| Word after the verb | Goes with | Example |
|---|---|---|
| un, una, unos, unas | hay | Hay unos niños en el parque. |
| a number | hay | Hay dos camas en la habitación. |
| mucho, poco, algún, ningún | hay | No hay ningún problema. |
| a noun with no article | hay | ¿Hay leche? |
| el, la, los, las | estar | Los niños están en el parque. |
| mi, tu, su… | estar | Mi móvil está en el coche. |
| este, ese, aquel… | estar | Ese restaurante está en la playa. |
| a name | estar | Sevilla está en el sur. |
Look at the first and fifth rows. Same children, same park. Unos niños are new on stage, so it's hay. Los niños are children we already know about, so it's estar.
Estar is for where something is (or how it is right now). For what something is like, you need ser: Es un piso muy luminoso (It's a really bright flat). More on that split in my visual guide to ser and estar.
Hay and estar in questions
Questions follow the same idea. Are you asking whether something exists, or where a particular one is?
| Is there one? (hay) | Where is it? (estar) |
|---|---|
| ¿Hay una parada de autobús por aquí? (Is there a bus stop round here?) | ¿Dónde está la parada del 12? (Where's the number 12 stop?) |
| ¿Hay alguien en casa? (Is anyone home?) | ¿Está tu madre? (Is your mum in?) |
| ¿Hay mesa para cuatro? (Have you got a table for four?) | ¿Dónde está nuestra mesa? (Where's our table?) |
| ¿Qué hay de postre? (What's for dessert?) | ¿Dónde están las cucharas? (Where are the spoons?) |
Notice ¿Está tu madre? With a person, estar on its own means "is she here?" or, on the phone, "is she there?" You don't even need to say where. There's more on that in Spanish phone call phrases.
In Spain, ¿Qué hay? on its own is also a casual hello, a bit like "how's it going?". You'll hear ¡Hola! ¿Qué hay? between friends and neighbours.
One holiday flat, both verbs
Here's how the two work together. You've just arrived at a holiday flat in Cádiz, and the owner is showing you round:
Wifi, toallas and algún supermercado are new on stage, so they get hay. La contraseña, las sábanas and la playa are things you both know about, so they get estar ✨
In the past and the future
The same split works in every tense. Hay's forms come from haber, and estar's come from estar:
| Introducing (haber) | Locating (estar) | |
|---|---|---|
| Now | Hay un bar en la esquina. | El bar está en la esquina. |
| Describing the past | Había un cine en mi pueblo. | El cine estaba en la plaza. |
| Plans | Va a haber un concierto. | El escenario va a estar en la playa. |
| The future | Habrá comida para todos. | La comida estará en el patio. |
Había and estaba are both imperfect, the tense you use to set the scene in the past. If you'd like to see how that fits with the other past tenses, have a look at Spanish past tenses explained.
And just like hay, the haber forms never go plural: Había muchos turistas, Va a haber dos conciertos.
Slip-ups that give you away
Hay mis llaves en la mesa.
Mis llaves están en la mesa. With mis, they're already on stage, so it's estar.
Un supermercado está cerca de mi casa.
Hay un supermercado cerca de mi casa. It's the first time you mention it, so it's hay.
Están dos camas en la habitación.
Hay dos camas en la habitación. Numbers go with hay.
Habían muchas personas en la fiesta.
Había muchas personas en la fiesta. You'll hear the plural in some areas, but standard Spanish keeps it singular.
Practise it this week
Give a tour of one room
Describe a room in your home out loud, in two rounds. First what's there, with hay: En mi dormitorio hay una cama, un armario y una lámpara. Then where things are, with estar: La lámpara está al lado de la cama.
Play "where did I leave it?"
Every time you look for something this week, ask yourself in Spanish: ¿Dónde están mis llaves? or ¿Dónde está el cargador? When you find it, say where it was: ¡Estaba en el bolso!
Ask one hay question out and about
Next time you're somewhere new, ask a real person a question like ¿Hay una parada de autobús por aquí? or ¿Hay mesa para dos?
Recap ✨
- Hay brings something new into the conversation. Estar says where something you both know about is.
- Hay never changes: hay un bar, hay diez bares. Estar changes with its subject: está, están.
- Un, numbers and mucho go with hay. El, mi, este and names go with estar.
- Ask ¿Hay…? to check something exists, and ¿Dónde está…? to find a particular one.
- In the past, it's había to introduce and estaba to locate, and había always stays singular.
If seeing grammar as pictures and tables works for you, my Visual Spanish Grammar Book does the same for all of Spanish grammar, with charts and colour-coded tables you can come back to whenever you get stuck.
Now I want to know 👀 Which one trips you up more: hay or está, or está or es? Cuéntame in the comments!
¡Un abrazo aventurero!
Lucía 💛
Lucía · Linguist, translator, Spanish teacher and author of the Visual Spanish Grammar Book.
Come and learn Spanish with me and other aventureros like yourself at skool.com/learnspanish 🎉