Verbs haber, ser and estar. Irregular verbs in Spanish and their uses

Today we present you an article that deals with a very important topic in Spanish grammar.

Let's talk about theverbs haber, ser and estar;of its irregular shapes, its uses, its similarities and its differences.

After reading this article you will become an expert in these verbs.  

Your Spanish will take a huge leap in quality. 👏😎

Useful verbs for speaking Spanish

Maybe you are wondering: 

"What are the verbs ser, estar and haber? Why do you give them so much importance?"

Well, we Spaniards are like that, we are going to dedicate an article to each verb that exists.

It's a joke. 😝

The truth is that theverbs ser, estar and haber they are very usefuland they are used a lot.

It is essential that you learn to use them well if you want to have a good level of Spanish.  

Verb to be, to be and to have. irregular verbs

Theseverbs are irregularin many of the times.

Don't you know hisshape?

Come on, let's start with the basics: theverbs ser and estar.

We put them in the present tense, although you probably already know them. 😉

Person	BE
I	am
You	are
He/She/You	is
We	are
You	you are
They/Them/You	are

Person	BE
I	I'm
You	are
He/She/You	this
We	we are
You	you are
They/Them/You	are

And the other times?

In the following infographic we present all theverbal forms of the verb to beinindicativeand insubjunctive:

And theverb be? Is estar a regular or irregular verb?

Well it depends on the time.  Sometimes it is regular and other times it is irregular.

Don't you know all the ways?

No problem! 

 Here is the infographic of theverb to be in all tensesso that you can study it whenever you want.😉

And what about himverb to have?

This verb is very peculiar becausehas two conjugationsdifferent. 

This is something unique in Spanish. 

How interesting! Don't you think?

Don't despair, I'll tell you right now the two uses of this verb. 😊

Uses of the verb haber 

The verb haber can be used as:

• auxiliary verbto formcompound verb tenses.
• Verb that indicatesexistence.

Next, let's look at them in detail.

Auxiliary verb to form compound tenses

The verb haber as an auxiliary is necessary to create many tenses. As we already saw in the articlePerfect tense, used thepresent of the verb haber + participleto form said time.

Don't you remember? 

It's okay, I'll refresh it for you:

Person	PAST PERFECT VERB TO SPEAK
I	I havespoken
You	you havespoken
He/She/You	haspoken
We	we have spoken
You	you have spoken
They/Them/You	they have spoken

This is the form ofpresent of the verb haber.

In addition to the present, theconjugation of the verb haberas an auxiliary it is also inother indicative and subjunctive tenses.They are the following:

INDICATIVE

• Perfect tense.
• past pluperfect
• future perfect
• Compound conditional

SUBJUNCTIVE

• past perfect
• past pluperfect

You can see the conjugations in the infographic from above the verb to have.

Hay: Expression of existence

On the other hand, the verb haber also serves to express existence.

In this case, we only use one way because it's impersonal.

In the present it would be the verb there is.

Example: There are grapes in the refrigerator.

We do not say: I There are grapes in the refrigerator.

That 'I' would be incorrect because These sentences have no subject..

That is, there is no person who does the action.

The grapes are just sitting in the fridge, no one does anything. 

You understand?

Other examples so you can see it better: 

• There are a child in the park.
• In Valencia there is many palm trees.
• There are four plates on the table.

All of these examples are in the present tense. Now let's see the verb forms of haber as existence in the rest of the times and modes:

In indicative we have the following:

Present – THERE IS

past perfect – HAS BEEN

Past indefinite – THERE WAS

Imperfect Past – THERE WAS

Past pluperfect – There had been

Simple future – THERE WILL BE

Future perfect – There will have been

Simple conditional – Would

Compound conditional – There would have been

In subjunctive they are:

Present – BEECH

past perfect– THERE HAS BEEN

Imperfect Past – WOULD HAVE/WOULD HAVE

Past pluperfect – There would have been/there would have been

Those marked on bold and capitalized They are the ones that are used the most. 

Do you want some examples? 

Come on! Today I am generous. 😉

HAS BEEN

This week there have been two accidents on my street. Luckily no one was hurt.

THERE WAS

Last night there was a big storm.

THERE WAS

There were many teachers at my school.

BEECH

It bothers me that there is so much junk in my house.

Common errors Vulgarism: had

Now let's talk about a very common mistake what people do conjugate the verb haber to talk about existence. 

It is about use the verb in plural and it is very frequent with the verb haber in the past, especially in the past imperfect: had.

Let's see some examples so that it is well understood:

Examples: 

• Yesterday there were many people on the subway.
• Yesterday there were many people in the subway.

Which of the two is incorrect?

Come on, I'll give you a moment to think about it.

Do you already know?

The wrong answer is the second because the verb haber is written in plural.

Remember that, in the use of existence, the verb haber is impersonal; It has no subject and, therefore, does not have plural.

• Yesterday on the subway there was many people. ✅
• Yesterday on the subway had many people. ❌

This vulgarism It is very common in the form of 'there was', but also it would be wrong in the other forms of verb to have.

Examples:

• yesterday there was different events in the square. ✅
• yesterday there were different events in the square. ❌
• Tomorrow there will be various exams at the university. ✅
• Tomorrow there will be various exams at the university. ❌

Common errors Vulgarism: There is + definite article

Another very typical error with the verb to have for existence is to put it next to certain articles: there is the, there is the, there are the, there are the.

The following examples would be wrong:

• There are the ball in the closet. ❌
• There was the cat on the terrace ❌
• There will be the shopping centers on the outskirts. ❌
• There are the water in the bottle. ❌

Instead you can use indefinite articles, numbers, indefinite or just a noun so that prayer is good. 

We show you with examples the words with the verb haber that you can use:

indefinite article: one, one, some, some.

• There are one ball in the closet. ✅😁

Undefined: a lot, enough, a little, enough, too much, several...

• There was many cats on the terrace. ✅🐈

Numbers: one, two, three, four, five...

• There will be four shopping centers on the outskirts. ✅👏

Noun alone:

• There are water in the bottle. ✅👍

Uses of the verb estar

We have already seen the uses and verbal forms of the verb haber. Now it's time verb be.

If you have already read the article about  verbs ser and estar, This will be familiar to you and will serve as a review.

It's always good to review theory, don't you think?

Yes you didn't read the article then great, because we explain some of the uses of the verb estar most important.

Location

We can express the location of people, places, things, animals... practically everything. 

The most popular construction is 'be + in'.

Example:

• Jaime is on the beach.

But we can also use other positions with the adverbs of place: inside, outside, next to, in front of, behind, on top of, under…

Examples:

• The computer is inside the backpack.
• The chair was behind the table.
• The painting will be on top of the sofa.

moods

We can talk about how we feel with the verb 'be + adjectives':

Examples:

A. How are you?

B. Today I am happy and excited for my promotion at work.

There are many adjectives that express moods: sad, happy, tired, bored, calm, nervous...

We have an article dedicated to emotions and moods.

If you want to know more, click on the link. 😊 

Everything related to emotions seems very interesting to me. 

Does the same thing happen to you?

Actions in process: Estar + gerund

what they are doing our students in the photo?

We can say that they are providing.

Also that they are laughing and taking a drink

Or what they are resting in our cafeteria before the next class starts.

we can use estar + gerund to talk about actions in process (actions not finished, continue) or describe the actions of an image, as we have done.

Don't you know how to form the gerund?

It's very easy.

You simply change the ending of the verbs that end in –AR by –ANDO, and verbs that end in –ER or –IR for –IENDO.

Examples of estar + gerund:

• I am TALKING
• you are EATING
• He/she/you are WALKING
• We are SEEING
• You are PLAYING
• They are WRITING

It is good to remember that both participle like him gerund are non-personal forms of the verbs. 

NO They change with different people, they are always the same.

Estar + participle

We also have a use of estar + participle. 😀

In this case we talk about results of an action.

Normally, when we do an action there is a result.

Examples:

• I close the door. – The door is closed.
• The baby has fallen asleep. – The baby is asleep.
• José has turned off the light. – The light is off.

Don't you know how participles are formed?

On regular ones, just change –AR by –ADO and –ER/IR by –IDO.

Rating: Good/Bad

The use of valuation It's great to express our opinion. 

This way your Spanish will look much more interesting. 😉

It is very common to use the word 'good' or 'bad'.

With infinitive for general phrases and impersonal:

Examples: 

• It's okay to play sports.
• It is wrong to be late for an appointment.

Or, with subjunctive when there is a subject.

Examples: 

• It's okay for you to meet new people if you feel lonely.
• It is wrong for Marcos to yell at his mother.

Temporary profession 

A very simple use of the verb estar is to temporary profession with 'be + of'.

We use this to talk about temporary, not permanent, professions. We know we won't be working there for long.

Examples:

• this summer I am of waiter to pay for my university studies.
• now I'm a taxi driver, but it is not my life's work.

Uses of the verb to be 

Let's go with the uses of verb to be!

The ones we are going to see are very easy, but they are used a lot.

So relax and take note. 😉

Nationality and origin 

We use 'being of' to mark the nationality or origin of a person.

Example:

• I am from Spain. I am from Valencia.

A thing or an animal can also have an origin:

Examples:

• These sneakers are from the store next to my house.
• Your cat was from the street

Physical and character description 

To talk about physical and character of people we use the verb to be.

Examples:

• Sonia is tall and kind.
• As a child, Luis was short and very funny.

Shall we have a competition? character adjectives?

There are many!

Come on, I'll start:

Nice, unfriendly, intelligent, romantic, patient, calm…wait…these are so easy!

I encourage you to write to me in the comments 3 character adjectives of a higher level. 

Surprise me. 😉

Of course, we can also describe to the animals or the objects.

Although in the latter, only his physique. 

Today, objects have no personality.

Or so we think... 😂

Profession

Before we have seen that with “be of” We can talk about temporary professions.

Instead, we use the verb to be if we want to talk about stable, long-lasting jobs or even definitive. 

Examples:

• Pedro is a computer scientist.
• Marta and Juan are police officers.
• You will be a data analyst.

Time expression

If we wantask the time, we use the verb be in the third person singular (it is).

To answer it, we will use the third person plural (are), because the numbers are plural. A exception of one, which is answered in singular (it is).

Examples:

A. What time is it?

B. It is half past four in the afternoon. (16.30)

A. What time is it?

B. It's one in the morning. (01.00)

material 

A descriptive element of the objects is the materials: wood, plastic, iron, glass…

We can talk about it with 'being of'.

Examples:

• My old house was made of brick.
• This pen is plastic.
• His shirt is wool.

Location of an event

Do you remember that with the verb be Can we talk about locations of people, places, animals or things?

Well, with the verb to be we can also locate, but only events.

And what is an event?

We can say that it is an “important” event that many people attend. 

Below, we give you some examples so you understand it better:

• The wedding was in the church of his town.
• The concert will be in the town hall square.
• The exam is in classroom 6.
• The board meeting has been in the hotel next to the company.

Do we practice verb activities? 

What a great article! I am very happy.

I really think it will help you a lot.

The verbs haber, ser and estar They are sooooo important.

Now... What do you think if we make some exercises with the verbs haber, ser and estar? 

Show me you master them! 😁

Remember that at the end of each exercise you have the solutions.

Let's go there!

Internships for level A

Complete the sentences with be, be or have. They can be in present or past perfect:

• This morning there was an accident on the highway between two cars.

• Today I ____________ quite tired because I haven't slept well.

• Where does she ______________ from? He has an unrecognizable accent.

• This summer I ____________ as a truck driver but I have already quit and now I am going to study at university.

• Can you check if __________ someone in room 5? I've been looking for my students all morning and I can't find them.

• Paco ___________ a firefighter all his life. He hasn't worked on anything else.

• This morning you didn't close the door properly and I didn't notice. That's why the door is open until you return.

Solutions

1. there has been
2. I am
3. is
4. I have been
5. there is
6. has been
7. has been

Practices for level B

Complete the sentences with be, be or have. They can be in all past indicative or in present subjunctive:

• I used to be very shy, but since I've been a teacher I'm not so ashamed anymore.

• Haven't you seen the keys? Yesterday ____________ at the table.

• Yesterday ______________ a celebration in the port with music and many people dancing.

• What time ____________ when Julio got home?

• I like that you __________ so calm, you transmit peace to me.

• __________ very good that you have hobbies, it is necessary to disconnect and do something that we like.

• I never __________ on a boat until I went on a Mediterranean cruise.

Solutions

1. was
2. were
3. there was
4. was
5. be
6. It is
7. had been

Practices for level C

Complete the sentences with be, be or have. They can be in all past indicative and subjunctive, as well as sentential connectors:

• I liked that yesterday you were __________ punctual and arrived before me at dinner.

• Where is Aitor? I don't think he ____________ all afternoon at your house, right?

• If ______________ had more money, he would have taken more trips this year.

• Have you ever ____________ done climbing? A lot of adrenaline is generated.

• Although they are not __________ prepared, they have to do it.

• Since Isabel was so arrogant with me yesterday, I'm not going to talk to her today.

• If you __________ in London, what is the first thing you would do? 
•  

Solutions

1. you were
2. has been
3. would have
4. you have
5. are
6. was
7. you were

How has it been?

Have you been wanting to know more about the verbs haber, ser and estar?

In Hispania, Spanish school; you can have spanish courses in person in which you will learn and practice these verbs with qualified teachers.

Can't move to Spain? 

Don't worry, we also offer online Spanish courses for you to study at home.

See you soon!

Article written by Carlos Martinez for Hispania, Spanish school

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