Breakdown of Hi ha molta cua davant de la farmàcia aquest matí.
haver-hi
there be
el matí
the morning
molt
a lot of
la farmàcia
the pharmacy
Questions & Answers about Hi ha molta cua davant de la farmàcia aquest matí.
Why does Catalan use hi ha here?
Hi ha is the standard way to say there is / there are in Catalan.
It is used to express that something exists or is present:
- Hi ha una farmàcia aquí. = There is a pharmacy here.
- Hi ha dues farmàcies al barri. = There are two pharmacies in the neighborhood.
So in Hi ha molta cua..., hi ha means that a queue exists / there is a lot of waiting.
In standard Catalan, hi ha is normally used for both singular and plural.
Why isn’t està used instead of hi ha?
Because hi ha and està do different jobs.
- hi ha = there is / there are → it introduces something
- està = is located / is → it describes location or state
Compare:
- Hi ha molta cua davant de la farmàcia. = There is a long queue in front of the pharmacy.
- La farmàcia està davant del mercat. = The pharmacy is in front of the market.
So here the sentence is not describing where the queue is as a known thing; it is saying that the queue exists there.
Why is it molta and not molt?