Learn Spanish (Latin America): No hay una cama en la oficina.

The word hay means "there is" or "there are" and is used to talk about whether things exist. You would use está if you were talking about where a specific bed is located (like "The bed is in the office"), but since we are just saying that an unspecific bed doesn't exist in that space, we use hay.

Could I say no hay la cama if I meant a specific bed?

No, and this is a special rule for hay! We only use hay with unspecific things (like una cama, meaning "a bed"). If you want to talk about a specific bed (like la cama, meaning "the bed"), you have to use the verb estar instead, as in: La cama no está en la oficina (The bed is not in the office).

Why does no go before hay?

In Spanish, you make a sentence negative by putting no directly in front of the verb. Even though in English we say "there is not" or "there isn't", in Spanish the negative word must come first, giving us no hay.

Does en always mean "in"?

The word en is a very flexible preposition! It can mean "in", "on", or "at" depending on the context. Since an office is an enclosed room, "in" is the most natural English translation here.