The Verb Haber

We have used the verb "have" in two ways. The first use of "have" we studied is to express possession. In Spanish we use the verb "tener". Here is a chart of the basic forms of "tener".

We also use the verb "tener" to express the idea of obligation. We can say that someone "has to do" something. In this case we use a form of "tener" with the infinitive (R form) of another verb, but we also put "que" after "have". Normally we think of "que" as being translated to "that" in English, but in this pattern there really isn't any English equivalent. We just use the "que" to indicate that "have" means obligation, not possession. Look at the following examples.

In the first case we use "have" to express possession. I "possess" the money. In the second case we express the obligation to do something ("to buy tickets").

Now we have a third meaning of "have". In this case we use "have" to express the concept of an action that has been completed some time before now in the past. We aren't pin pointing a moment in the past when we did the action, like we do with the preterite past form. We aren't saying we did something at a particular point in time, just that we have done it (some time before now). In this case, we don't use forms of the verb "tener". We use a completely different verb for "have" when we say that someone "has done" something. In this case in Spanish we use forms of the verb "haber". These forms are irregular (unpredictable, not following the normal pattern) and we just have to memorize them. Here are the present forms of the verb "haber". You can click the Spanish forms to hear the pronunciation. Notice that the "h" is silent.

I have
he

you have
has

he/she has
ha

we have
hemos

they have
han

To say that someone "has done" something we use a combination of a form of "haber" together with the participle of another verb. If you think back to your English class, you may remember that the teacher had you learn three forms of each verb. These are called the "principle parts" of a verb. For example, "sing, sang, sung", or "break, broke, broken", etc. The third form of the verb is the participle. It is the form which we use with "have" in English.

I broke the window.
I have broken the window.

In Spanish, the participle normally ends in the letters "-do". For "A" category verbs, the normal pattern is "-ado" on the end of the verb. For "E" and "I" verbs, we normally find "-ido" on the end of the verb. Here are some examples of participles of verbs that we have used.

Infinitive Participle

hablar hablado

comprar comprado

estudiar estudiado

comer comido

aprender aprendido

vender vendido

Remember that we are going to use a combination of forms of "have" ("haber") and the participle. In other words, this pattern is going to be a verb phrase, not a single word verb form.

Let's take a look at the chart of the "perfect" verb phrase patterns.

Notice that the participle doesn't change, only the forms of the verb "have". Remember that when we practiced making sentences with "tengo que" plus the infinitive ("R" form), the infinitive never changed, only the form of "have". This works the same way.

Let's practice building some sentences.

There are a few verbs in Spanish which have irregular (unpredictable) participles. Instead of ending in "-do", most of these will end in "-to". One of the most common irregular participles in this group that we will find is "escrito", the participle for the verb "escribir" ("to write"). Let's see how this works.

There are two verbs whose participles end in "-cho". You may have seen one of them on the underneath side of some product which was imported. Have you ever seen the phrase "hecho en Mexico" on something that you bought? "Hecho" means "made" and it is the participle of the verb "hacer". We use "hacer" for "to make" and also "to do". Let's practice using this form in sentences.

The other verb whose participle ends in "-cho" is the verb "decir" ("to say" or "to tell").

There are some cases where a verb phrase can have more than two words. We have used the verb "puede" in lots of sentences. We could combine it with the forms of "have" to express the idea, "has been able to do something". When we form the participle of "puede", the "ue" will simplify to the single vowel "o", since the stress is on the ending "-ido". Remember, we can only have the combination "ue" when it is in the stressed syllable. After "podido" we are going to need to use an infinitive of some other verb. It is important to remember that we always follow any form of "can" ("puede"), with an infinitive. In English we would say, "has been able to do".

Let's see how we would do the following sentences.

Now let's look at other forms of the verb "have". Like any other verb, there are four basic forms. Let's look at the chart for "haber".

he
has
ha
hemos
han

haya
hayas
haya
hayamos
hayan

había
habías
había
habíamos
habían

hubiera
hubieras
hubiera
hubiéramos
hubieran

You will notice that this verb has several irregular forms that we will have to memorize. It is very important to learn them since this verb is used with virtually every other verb in the language in a number of different combinations. From the chart we can see that "había" is the past form of "have", which in English would be "had". In other words, we might say, "someone had done something". The "feeling" form of "have" is "haya". We could have a sentence in which we say that we hope that someone "has done" something. Then "hubiera" would be the past "feeling" form we would use if we said that we were hoping that someone "had done" something. As long as we keep the basic verb form chart in mind, it should not get too complicated. We just have to practice the forms one at a time, step by step, until we have learned them to the point that we can use them easily and accurately.

Let's do some more practice.