Desde la playa hasta el faro hay cien escalones, y mi hija quiso contarlos todos.

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Breakdown of Desde la playa hasta el faro hay cien escalones, y mi hija quiso contarlos todos.

• mi: my
• y: and
• la playa: the beach

Questions & Answers about Desde la playa hasta el faro hay cien escalones, y mi hija quiso contarlos todos.

Why does the sentence use desde ... hasta ...?

Desde ... hasta ... is the standard way to say from ... to ... when you are marking the limits of a space, time period, or range.

So:

• desde la playa = from the beach
• hasta el faro = to / as far as the lighthouse

Together they define the stretch between those two points.

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Why does it say hay cien escalones instead of están cien escalones or son cien escalones?

Hay is used to say that something exists or there is/there are something somewhere.

So:

• hay cien escalones = there are one hundred steps

You would not normally use estar here, because the sentence is not mainly describing the location of specific known steps. It is introducing their existence in that stretch.

A useful comparison:

• Hay cien escalones hasta el faro. = There are a hundred steps up to the lighthouse.
• Los escalones están mojados. = The steps are wet.

Also, hay does not change for singular or plural:

• hay un escalón
• hay cien escalones

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Why is it cien escalones and not ciento escalones?