DAY SIX. LAS EXPRESIONES IMPERSONALES (IMPERSONAL EXPRESSIONS)

6

Welcome to another day of trying to learn Spanish!  Today’s entry is mercifully shorter...

Do you want a real challenge?  Then try learning the forms of the verb haber!  This verb is highly irregular in the way it conjugates and in the way it is used in Spanish (it can be used as an auxiliary verb). Someday soon you shall learn all the forms (and uses) of the verb haber, but today let’s just learn one VERY useful form of the verb haber, a rather special verb form called the IMPERSONAL form.  Anyways, the word is

HAY.

No, not like English hay, which is, of course, just for horses.  I’m talking Spanish hay (which, in case you needed the extra information, rhymes with English ‘spy’).  Hay can mean ‘there is’, and it can also mean ‘there are’.  And yes, for once, it is just that simple. The verb does not change form whether you are trying to say 'there is' or 'they are'. Easy! Examples --  Hay miles de lenguas en el mundo, there are thousands of languages in the world.  Hay mucho azúcar en la piña, there is a lot of sugar in pineapple (in Spanish when making general statements you use the definite article with the noun you are generalizing about, like la piña where in English you would simply use ‘pineapple’).  Hay perros en la casa, there are dogs in the house.  Hay un restaurante cerca de aquí.  There’s a restaurant close to here.

If you want to say ‘it’s necessary’ to do something, you can simply put ‘hay que’ plus an infinitive and you can communicate any given necessity.

Hay que lavar la ropa.  It is necessary to wash the clothing.

Hay que llegar temprano.  It is necessary to arrive early.

Hay que tener cuidado.  It is necessary to be cautious (literally: have caution)

--- Yesterday I had you learn the present form of the verb IR, and today I’m gonna throw another challengingly irregular verb at you, which is irregular because it was irregular in Latin, too.  The verb is SER, which means TO BE.  After I teach you SER, I’ll teach you ESTAR, which also means TO BE.  Confused?  You should be.  It’s been years and I still get confused with those two verbs sometimes.  The short explanation is SER is for permanent states and ESTAR is for temporary conditions, but the actual explanation is long, complicated, and fraught with individual instances to memorize.  So first, SER.

ser (to be, 1 of 2)

soy

eres

es

somos

sois

son

estar (to be, 2 of 2)
estoy

estás

está

estamos

estáis

están

So the good news is that in estar, the first person and second person plural are actually regular.  In the present, anyways...

One example of a use for estar is for EMOTIONS, how you are feeling (which as we know can change at the drop of a hat).  Estoy nervioso, ‘I’m nervous’; Estoy encantada, I’m charmed (shortened to encantada, it’s what you might say when you meet someone); Estoy triste, ‘I’m sad’; Estoy feliz, ‘I’m happy’; Estoy cansado, ‘I’m tired’, estoy enfadada, ‘I’m angry’; estás mal, you’re not well (as in feeling well -- mal can also mean ‘bad’); estamos cómodas, ‘we’re comfortable’ ... and so on.  Notice that I am using adjectives here and I am using various forms of adjectives in my examples.  Spanish adjectives change depending on the gender (of the speaker) and number (either singular or plural).  The rule that you learn is that women use the feminine form, men use the masculine form, and so on... but, you know, use the form you feel most comfortable with, obviously.  

Estar is used when talking about location (as in where things are), but ser is used for where things take place or occur in time, things such as parties, concerts, dates, events, etc.  Estoy en Galicia means ‘I am in Galicia’ while El evento es en el edificio nuevo means ‘The event is (taking place) in the new building’.

One example of a use for ser is for professions.  For professions, use ser.  In Spanish, when stating the professions of people, you do not use any article of any kind.  So what do I mean?  I mean, you don’t say ‘I’m a pastor’, you just say

Soy pastor (masculine form) ; Soy pastora (feminine form) ; Soy pastore (neutral form) ---

Necesario is an adjective, and it means necessary (this is easy to remember).  It’s an adjective, so of course when I say necesario means necessary, you have to keep in mind that there are more forms for this adjective; necesario is just the masculine singular form.  Es necesario means ‘it is necessary’; the ‘it’ is implied in the verb.  Note here that the masculine singular form must be used (the implied ‘it’ in the verb form es is considered to be masculine singular.  Es bueno, es malo, es innecesario, es importante, es esencial, es recomendable ... there are other impersonal expressions that work the same way; you see that masculine singular form appear (although you must make sure to note in the last three examples I just gave you, the adjectives have the same form in the masculine as in the feminine).  Another way of expressing this is to say hace falta, literally ‘it makes a shortage/scarcity’, and you’ll notice ‘it’ is implied in the verb hace (from the infinitive hacer, ‘to make/to do’ which has an irregular yo-form, hago).  If you want to say that it is necessary to do something, you need to add the infinitive form, and a direct object after that, if desired.

Es necesario escuchar.  It’s necessary to listen.

Hace falta comer.   It’s necessary to eat.

Es necesario comprar ropa nueva.  It’s necessary to buy new clothes.

Hace falta ir al supermercado.  It’s necessary to go to the supermarket.

You should note that in the examples es necesario comer, hace falta comer, hay que comer... you are saying the same thing! All three of these ways of saying that it is necessary to do something are used in Spanish.

You may notice that in the last example the verb ir (to go) was followed not by a noun, but by a prepositional phrase.  Like in English’s ‘to go’, ir is followed by the preposition a (to) to indicate directions towards.  Al is actually a contraction of a + el.  Del is a contraction of de + el ------ and believe it or not, those are the only contractions in Spanish!  Galician-Portuguese has more. But I'll teach you that on another day.
That's all for now, so long!