El Rincón Español - homeschool Spanish support

Dec. 10, 2007

How Many? ¿Cuántos hay?

Quick field trip announcement: I have not been able to keep up with posting weekly field trips. I'll plan a special field trip for Christmas, and then go to posting one or two per month after the new year. Deal? ¿Trato hecho?

On to our regularly scheduled entry....

Counting to ten in Spanish is pretty universally known in the US. But once you know those numbers/los numeros, what good do they do you if you can't form a sentence to say how many of something there are? It's easier than you think!

Let me introduce you to one of the Spanish language's most handy and easy verbs: haber. It is used to say "there are", as in: "There are 20 people in that Volkswagen", or "There are 50 pink flamingos on my lawn."

The two most common forms are the following:

hay (pronounced like the English word "eye" - we're not talking about horse food here!) - meaning "there are" in the present tense.
había - "there were", past tense, such as Había una vez una princesa hermosa.../Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess....

Let's plug in flash cards (Flash Kids Spanish Flash Cards) or vocabulary words to make sentences with Hay + a number:

Hay diez conejos - There are ten rabbits.
Hay nueve dulces - There are nine pieces of candy.
Hay ocho ratones - There are eight mice.
Hay siete balones - There are seven balls.
Hay seis globos - There are six balloons.
Hay cinco peces - There are five fish.
Hay cuatro grillos - There are four crickets.
Hay tres estrellas - There are three stars.
Hay dos pajaros - There are two birds.
Hay una abeja - There is one bee.

Try this exercise with household objects too! Feel free to ask if there is something you are unsure of how to say. Note: The number uno is the only one that changes based upon masculine/feminine/singular/plural. The forms are, respectively: un/una/unos/unas. You only actually say uno when counting. Note numero dos: Remember to drop the el/la/los/las when putting a number before your noun.

Another fun idea... practice saying your phone number in Spanish! (Cero means zero):
ocho-cuatro-seis-siete-cinco-cero-tres

Get counting!

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