Just when you think you’ve memorised the regular and irregular verbs up pops some odd little verb that seems to tap you on the shoulder to remind you that you never, ever stop learning a foreign language.
What verb might this be? It’s ‘haber’. He means ‘to have’ and is used as an auxiliary verb. Yes, he’s a helpful kind of guy. You use him when you want to form the Present Perfect – I have eaten, You have gone, She has walked, etc.
(I know, why can’t they just use the verb ‘tener’ which also means ‘to have’?)
Can you conjugate ‘haber’?
I can hear you scream! Those of you who prefer to memorise lists of vocabulary words are probably trembling right now. I know you don’t want to bother with yet another verb conjugation. But, ‘haber’ is just a little baby. He’s like ‘ir’, another tiny verb that gets people’s dander up. Both are harmless and both are just words.
Here is Haber in all his glory:
HABER
He Hemos
Has Habéis
Ha Han
Do you see what I mean when I say he’s just a little baby?!
Can you come up with sentences using ‘haber’?
Let’s try.
Yo he comido nueve bocadillos. I have eaten nine bocadillos.
Tú has bebido una botella entera de vino. You have drunk an entire bottle of wine.
Ella ha trabajado veinte horas hoy. She has worked twenty hours today. (Ay, caramba!)
Right now, you might be wondering about the past participle. It’s not so difficult to form. Take off the ar, er, ir endings and add the endings of the past participle. ADO for the Ar verbs, and IDO for the Er and Ir verbs.
Nosotros hemos hablado mucho en español. ¿Habéis vosotros vendido la casa? Ellos han asistido a la clase.
Now, you just know there has to be some irregular endings! That’s what makes learning Spanish intriguing and fun. It just wouldn’t be Spanish if it were too easy. The good news is that many of the past participle irregular endings are verbs that you use in general conversation, so you’ll get the hang of them quite quickly.
¿Quién ha roto la ventana? Who has broken the window?
¿Has escrito alguna vez a Papa Noel? Have you ever written to Santa Claus?
Ya hemos visto la película. We’ve already seen the movie.
Ellos todavía no han vuelto. They still haven’t come back.
I’m thinking that the above sentences might be just too simple for some of you.
Let’s move to the present subjunctive. Absolutely! That way when you get mad at your significant other you can let that person know without beating about the bush. We can just use the second person singular to get started.
Haya Hayamos
Hayas Hayáis
Haya Hayan
íEspero que hayas sacado la basura! I hope you’ve taken out the rubbish.
¡Espero que hayas preparado la cena! I hope you’ve prepared dinner.
¡Espero que hayas pagado las cuentas! I hope you’ve paid the bills.
He or she replies,
No he tenido tiempo. I haven’t had time. (Yeah, right!)
Trying not to be too annoyed, you respond,
¡Has pasado toda la tarde leyendo una revista! You’ve spent the whole afternoon reading a magazine!
No es verdad. Mira, te he comprado un regalito. It’s not true. Look, I’ve bought you a little gift.
Gracias. Es bueno que me hayas comprado chocolates. Thank you. It’s good that you’ve bought me chocolates.
It’s good that you’ve read all this. Es bueno que hayas leído todo esto. Gracias. ¡Hasta pronto!
If you'd like to read about the seventies and eighties in Spain please click here.