Intermediate Spanish: A trip across Latin America
◄Previous: 3.1 Tres lugares sorprendentes

# 3.2 Describiendo lugares

En la sección anterior has visto imágenes y descripciones de tres lugares sorprendentes. Ahora, lee en el cuadro de lengua el uso de los verbos haber y estar en la descripción de lugares. Después completa el ejercicio de abajo.

Read the language box below about the use of the verbs haber and estar . Then complete the exercise that follows.

## Box 2 Descriptions with haber and estar

Haber is used to talk about the existence of something or to refer to things that are mentioned for the first time in the discourse. However, it does not refer to definite nouns.

En mi casa hay habitaciones.

En mi casa hay tres habitaciones.

En mi casa hay unas habitaciones.

(Incorrect: *En mi casa hay las habitaciones.)

The referent whose existence is indicated appears after the verb haber , which occurs invariably in 3rd person singular, as in hay / había / habrá (but not * habían personas ), and is never followed by el/la/los/las .

En nuestro barrio hay un supermercado chino . There is a new supermarket in our neighbourhood

Había muchísimas personas en la calle. There was a lot of people on the streets

En mi casa nueva habrá dos ventanas grandes . There will be two big windows in my new house

Estar indicates the location of a definite and identifiable thing, or something which has already been mentioned.

El centro cultural está a las afueras de la ciudad . The cultural centre is on the outskirts of the city.

## Actividad 12

5 minutos

Elige el verbo adecuado en el siguiente texto.

Choose the correct verb.

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