Hay, estar, and saying where things are

Short answer

Hay means "there is" or "there are" and never changes form — hay un banco, hay dos bancos. Use it to say something exists. Use estar for where a specific, known thing is: el banco está en la esquina. Hay introduces; estar locates.

Course · Unit: Place and position CEFR A1 Reviewed by Jhoslyn Updated 2026-09-11

Draft copy. Every claim needs a native-speaker check before publishing — the byline is what makes this citable, so it has to be earned.

Hay does not conjugate

One form, singular and plural, and that is the good news.

Hay un banco. — there’s a bank.
Hay dos bancos. — there are two banks.
¿Hay baño? — is there a toilet?
No hay. — there isn’t / we’re out. A complete sentence, and you will hear it constantly in shops.

Hay comes from haber, and as “there is” it is fixed. In other tenses it shifts but stays singular: había (there was), habrá (there will be), hubo (there was, as an event).

Hay or estar

The division is about whether the thing is already known.


hay — introduces, or asks whether it exists	¿Hay* una farmacia por acá?*
estar — locates a specific, known thing	¿Dónde está* la farmacia?*

So the conversation goes in that order: ¿Hay una farmacia por acá? → Sí, está en la esquina. First you establish it exists; then you locate it.

A consequence worth knowing: hay never takes a definite article. Hay un banco — never hay el banco. If you know which one, you are locating it, and that is estar.

Prepositions of place

Most take de before the noun, which is the part learners drop.


en	in, on, at — en la mesa, en Lima
encima de	on top of
debajo de	under
al lado de	next to
cerca de	near
lejos de	far from
delante de	in front of
detrás de	behind
entre	between — no de
frente a	opposite, facing
dentro de / fuera de	inside / outside
a la derecha de / a la izquierda de	to the right / left of

Remember a + el = al and de + el = del: al lado del banco, a la derecha del mercado.

Sobre also means “on”, and it doubles as “about”: un libro sobre Perú.

Asking for directions

The two openings, and the second is the one that gets a friendlier answer.

¿Dónde está el mercado?
Disculpe, ¿sabe dónde está el mercado? — softer, because you are asking whether they know rather than demanding the fact. Peruvian Spanish softens heavily; see Tú or usted in Peru.

What comes back:

Siga derecho. — go straight on. (Derecho straight, derecha right — one letter apart and a real source of wrong turns.)
Doble a la derecha / izquierda.
Está a dos cuadras. — two blocks away. Cuadra, not manzana, in Peru.
Está acá al lado. / Está ahí nomás. — it’s right there.

The Lima vocabulary

acá over aquí. Both correct, acá is what you hear.

Nomás, tacked on the end, meaning “just” or “right”: ahí nomás, pase nomás, dígame nomás. It softens.

Paraderos and combis. A bus stop is a paradero; the minibus is a combi and the man hanging out of it shouting destinations is the cobrador. ¿Hay paradero por acá? is a real sentence you will need.

A la vuelta — around the corner. Está a la vuelta.

Practise

Hay or estar?

¿___ un cajero por acá?
El cajero ___ en la esquina.
No ___ nadie.
Mis llaves ___ encima de la mesa.
¿___ baño?

→ 1 hay · 2 está · 3 hay · 4 están · 5 hay.

Number 4 is the check: specific known keys, so estar — and plural, because unlike hay, estar agrees.

→ Possessives and demonstratives

Topics Prepositions Getting around Ser and estar

Hay or está?

Hay introduces, estar locates. Plus the prepositions that need de, and the one letter between straight on and turn right.

1You are new to the street and want to know whether a chemist exists nearby.
Answer

¿Hay una farmacia por acá? — *Hay* asks whether something exists. You only switch to *estar* once the thing is known: *Sí, está en la esquina.*
2*Mis llaves ___ encima de la mesa.*
Answer

están — Specific, known keys, so *estar* — and *estar* agrees, unlike *hay*. Plural keys means *están*.
3*___ dos bancos en esta cuadra.*
Answer

Hay — *Hay* never changes form — one bank or twenty, it stays *hay*. Pluralising it to *han* is the standard slip.
4Which of these is impossible?
Answer

Hay el baño. — *Hay* never takes a definite article. If you already know which toilet you mean, you are locating it, and that is *está*.
5*El cajero está a la derecha ___ mercado.*
Answer

del — *De + el* always contracts to *del* — *a la derecha del mercado*, *al lado del banco*. Writing *de el* is never right.
6Someone tells you *Siga derecho*. They mean:
Answer

go straight on — *Derecho* is straight on; *derecha* is right. One letter apart, and a real source of wrong turns — *doble a la derecha* is the turn.
7*Está a dos ___.* — it's two blocks away, in Peru.
Answer

cuadras — *Cuadra* is the word for a city block in Peru. *Manzana* is used in Spain, and in Lima it will mostly be heard as apple.