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Hoy no hay estudiantes en la escuela.

Hoy no hay estudiantes en la escuela.
Today there are no students at the school.
From Lesson 18:There is, there are (hay)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Hoy no hay estudiantes en la escuela.

Why does the sentence use hay for "there are"? Doesn't it mean "there is"?
The word hay is very flexible and means both "there is" and "there are". In Spanish, it does not change form when you are talking about plural things like estudiantes.
Why do we use en here if the translation says "at the school"? Doesn't en mean "in"?
Yes, en often translates to "in", but Spanish also uses it for locations where English speakers would say "at" or "on". When you are located at an institution or place like la escuela, you simply use en.
Why is it just estudiantes and not los estudiantes?
When you use hay or no hay to say that things exist or do not exist, you usually drop the article like los or las if you mean "any" in a general sense. Adding the article would make it sound like you are looking for specific students, rather than just stating that the school is empty of them.
Could I say Hoy hay no estudiantes instead to match the English word order?
No, in Spanish the negative word no always goes right before the verb. So it must be no hay, which is literally "not there are", even though English puts the "no" right next to "students".

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