Va a haber: Related Forms of "Hay"

Pero cómo no va a haber...

Of course there is...

Caption 21, Disputas - La Extraña Dama

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Most of us catch on quickly that hay means "there is/are" but are less likely to pick up on related forms such as va a haber, which by itself means "there is going to be." But when Amelia suggests to Santiago Ritchie that he can get what he wants si hay dinero suficiente... ("if there is enough money") and he replies Pero cómo no va a haber, the best translation is "Of course there is" (not "Of course there's going to be"). Santiago instinctively uses va a haber instead of hay after cómo no because pero cómo no hay is likely to be misinterpreted as "since there isn't any (money)." Because of the consecutive and adjacent "ah" sounds, non-natives often find va a haber slightly awkward to say and native speakers themselves often barely pronounce the middle a, or don't pronounce it at all.

Here is a similar example:

Novia: ¿Me quieres?
Novio: ¡Cómo no te voy a querer!

Girlfriend: Do you love me?
Boyfriend: Of course I love you!

If the boyfriend had followed cómo no with te quiero, his girlfriend might have understood it to mean "since I don't love you."

Expressions

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