Alguien está en la puerta.

Someone is at the door.

Breakdown of Alguien está en la puerta.

• en: at
• estar: to be
• la puerta: the door
• .: period
• alguien: someone

Questions & Answers about Alguien está en la puerta.

Is it more natural to say Hay alguien en la puerta instead of Alguien está en la puerta?

Both are correct, but they’re used a bit differently.

• Hay alguien en la puerta is the most idiomatic way to announce an unknown presence at the door. It introduces the existence of “someone.”
• Alguien está en la puerta is also fine, but it sounds more like you’re locating a specific person (even if you don’t name them). Many speakers still prefer hay here.
• Very common in Spain when you hear a knock/bell: Llaman a la puerta or Han llamado a la puerta.

Why do we use estar and not ser?

Use estar to talk about the location of people and things: Alguien está en la puerta.
Use ser for events: La reunión es en la sala.
So Alguien es en la puerta is incorrect.

Why en la puerta and not a la puerta for “at the door”?

• For static location, Spanish uses en: alguien está en la puerta.
• A la puerta appears with action verbs: llamar a la puerta, asomarse a la puerta, salir a la puerta.
• With estar and haber (hay), the standard choice is en. You may hear Hay alguien a la puerta in some varieties, but en is the safest, most general option.

Does en mean “in”? Are they inside the door?

En is broad and often corresponds to English “in/on/at,” depending on context. En la puerta matches English “at the door” and simply means “by the doorway,” not literally “inside the door.”
To emphasize outside, you can say: fuera, fuera de casa, en la puerta de casa, en el portal (apartment building entrance, in Spain).

Is the accent on está necessary?

Yes. Está (he/she/it is) must carry the accent to mark the stress and to distinguish it from esta (this, feminine). Under current rules, esta never takes an accent; está always does.

How is alguien pronounced? What is the silent u doing there?

• Pronunciation: roughly “al-gyen” (the g is the hard G sound; the u is silent).
• Spanish writes gu before i/e to keep a hard g (compare guitarra). The u is only pronounced if it has a diaeresis (güi/güe, e.g., vergüenza). There’s no diaeresis in alguien, so the u is silent.

Can I ask “Is someone at the door?” with ¿Está alguien en la puerta?

You can, but the more idiomatic question is ¿Hay alguien en la puerta?
¿Está alguien…? tends to be used when you have a specific set in mind (e.g., “Is anyone from IT at the door?”). If you just heard a knock, Spaniards often ask ¿Quién es? or ¿Quién llama?

How do I negate it? How do I say “No one is at the door”?

• Most neutral: No hay nadie en la puerta.
• With estar: Nadie está en la puerta. (When nadie comes before the verb, you don’t add no.)
• Avoid: No hay alguien… After no, replace alguien with nadie.
• Also possible but less common: No está nadie en la puerta.

Does alguien have a plural? How do I say “Some people are at the door”?

• Alguien has no plural.
• Use Hay algunas personas en la puerta or, more idiomatically, Hay gente en la puerta (note that gente takes singular verb agreement).
• If you mean “some of them (from a known group),” you can say Algunos están en la puerta.

What gender is alguien? How do adjectives or pronouns agree with it?

• Alguien is grammatically masculine for agreement by default when the person’s gender is unknown: Alguien está en la puerta; parece cansado.
• If you later find out it’s a woman: parece cansada.
• Referring back: once known, use él/ella. If asking someone to deal with them in Spain, you might hear Atiéndele (leísmo, widely accepted for a male person), or Atiéndelo/atiéndela.

Could I say Llaman a la puerta instead?

Yes, and it’s very idiomatic in Spain. It focuses on the action (knocking/ringing) rather than mere presence.

• Right now: Llaman a la puerta.
• Just happened: Han llamado a la puerta.
• With the bell: Están llamando al timbre.

Is the word order flexible? What about Está alguien en la puerta or En la puerta está alguien?

• Alguien está en la puerta: neutral statement.
• Está alguien en la puerta: acceptable, often used in echo statements or questions, or to check/confirm.
• En la puerta está alguien: very emphatic/literary, focusing on the location.
• The most natural everyday options remain Hay alguien en la puerta or the neutral order above.

What exactly does la puerta refer to? Could it be any door?

Yes. La puerta is “the door” relevant from context: front door, office door, classroom door, etc. In Spain, if you mean the building’s main entrance area, say el portal.

Is a la puerta ever acceptable with hay or estar?

You may hear Hay alguien a la puerta in some (especially Peninsular) usage, but it’s less general and can sound marked or regional. For learners, prefer en la puerta with hay/estar and use a la puerta after action verbs (especially llamar a la puerta).

Why not use a progressive like estando? English says “Someone is …”

Spanish doesn’t use the progressive for states like location. You simply use the present of estar: Alguien está en la puerta.
The form está estando is ungrammatical/unnatural.

How else can I say “at the door” if I want to be more specific about position?

• Right by the doorway: en la puerta, junto a la puerta.
• In front of the door (facing it, outside): delante de la puerta.
• Outside (not specifying the door): fuera.
  Choice depends on the nuance you want.