Haber: Full Conjugation | Spanish (Latin America) Grammar

Haber is unusual: as a main verb, it is almost never used on its own in modern Spanish. Instead, it plays two specific roles. As an auxiliary, it combines with past participles to form all the perfect tenses (see Haber as Auxiliary). As an impersonal verb, it appears only in the third-person singular to mean "there is" or "there are" (see Hay and Impersonal Haber in All Tenses).

Because haber is irregular in nearly every tense, the full paradigm is worth memorizing.

Present indicative

The present tense has a special impersonal form, hay, which replaces ha when the meaning is "there is / there are". All the other forms are used only as auxiliaries.

Tense	yo	tú	él/ella/usted	nosotros	ellos/ellas/ustedes
Present (auxiliary)	he	has	ha	hemos	han

The impersonal form hay stands alone: hay un libro en la mesa ("there is a book on the table"). Note that hay is only used in present indicative; the other tenses use standard third-person-singular forms (había, hubo, habrá, and so on).

He estudiado español durante tres años.

I have studied Spanish for three years.

Hay veinte estudiantes en mi clase.

There are twenty students in my class.

Preterite

The preterite follows the irregular "u-stem" pattern, and the third-person singular hubo is also the impersonal preterite ("there was / there were" for single completed events).

Tense	yo	tú	él/ella/usted	nosotros	ellos/ellas/ustedes
Preterite	hube	hubiste	hubo	hubimos	hubieron

The preterite as an auxiliary (hube hablado) is the "preterite perfect" and is extremely rare in modern Spanish, found only in literary writing. The form you will actually use daily is hubo as an impersonal.

Hubo un accidente en la avenida principal.

There was an accident on the main avenue.

Imperfect

The imperfect is fully regular, following the -er pattern hab- + -ía.

Tense	yo	tú	él/ella/usted	nosotros	ellos/ellas/ustedes
Imperfect	había	habías	había	habíamos	habían

Había mucha gente en la plaza.

There were a lot of people in the plaza.

Nosotros ya habíamos comido cuando llegó.

We had already eaten when he arrived.

The auxiliary había + participle forms the pluperfect ("had done"), one of the most useful tenses in narrative Spanish.

Future

Haber has a shortened future stem habr- rather than the regular haber-.

Tense	yo	tú	él/ella/usted	nosotros	ellos/ellas/ustedes
Future	habré	habrás	habrá	habremos	habrán

Para el viernes, habré terminado el proyecto.

By Friday, I will have finished the project.

Habrá más de cien invitados en la boda.

There will be more than a hundred guests at the wedding.

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Like its future, the conditional of haber also uses the stem habr-. Any verb whose future is irregular shares the same stem in the conditional.

Conditional

Tense	yo	tú	él/ella/usted	nosotros	ellos/ellas/ustedes
Conditional	habría	habrías	habría	habríamos	habrían

Yo habría venido, pero no tenía carro.

I would have come, but I did not have a car.

The conditional auxiliary forms the conditional perfect ("would have done"), common in hypothetical past situations.

Present subjunctive

The present subjunctive of haber is haya, used constantly in the present perfect subjunctive and also as the impersonal subjunctive ("that there be").

Tense	yo	tú	él/ella/usted	nosotros	ellos/ellas/ustedes
Present subjunctive	haya	hayas	haya	hayamos	hayan

Espero que hayas dormido bien.

I hope you slept well.

No creo que haya problema.

I do not think there is a problem.

Imperfect subjunctive

Tense	yo	tú	él/ella/usted	nosotros	ellos/ellas/ustedes
Imperfect subj. (-ra)	hubiera	hubieras	hubiera	hubiéramos	hubieran
Imperfect subj. (-se)	hubiese	hubieses	hubiese	hubiésemos	hubiesen

The hubiera forms are extremely common in si-clauses ("if I had known...") and in the pluperfect subjunctive.

Si hubiera sabido, te habría llamado.

If I had known, I would have called you.

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Haber has no imperative form, because you cannot really "command" an auxiliary verb. The closest thing is haya used as a subjunctive of wish: ojalá haya tiempo ("I hope there is time").