If you've been learning Spanish for a while, you've probably noticed that choosing the right preposition isn't always straightforward. The Spanish verb escapar (to escape) is a good example of this. Depending on which preposition follows it, the meaning can shift in a way that might catch you off guard.
One of our users recently came across this caption and had a great question:
En Guadalajara no escapamos a la tendencia negativa general.
In Guadalajara, we don't escape the overall negative trend.
Caption 38, 3R Campaña de reciclaje - Part 1
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"Why is this escapar a rather than escapar de?" the user asked. It's a subtle but important distinction, and today we're going to break it down clearly.
When escapar is followed by the preposition a, it conveys the idea of being unable to avoid something or being exempt from something. Think of it as "to be beyond someone's reach or control." In this sense, escapar a is often used with abstract concepts — things like trends, rules, influences, or consequences.
For example:
• Nadie escapa a las consecuencias de sus actos. (No one escapes the consequences of their actions.)
• Este fenómeno no escapa a la atención de los expertos. (This phenomenon doesn't escape the attention of experts.)
Notice that when used in the negative — as in no escapar a — the meaning is that something is no exception to a rule or tendency. That's exactly what's happening in the caption above: Guadalajara is not exempt from that negative trend.
It's also worth noting that escapar a can be used pronominally — that is, with a reflexive pronoun — without changing its core meaning:
Creo que no hay ninguna pareja que se escape a esto que yo os estoy contando.
I believe that there's no couple that escapes this that I'm telling you about.
Captions 16-17, Soledad Las parejas
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As you can see in this clip, the speaker is making the point that no couple is exempt from what they're describing — a perfect example of escapar a in action.
Escapar de, on the other hand, is used in a much more concrete sense: physically fleeing from confinement, danger, or a difficult situation. This is the usage most Spanish learners are already familiar with.
El sapo se siente aliviado porque ha conseguido escapar de la amenaza del cocodrilo.
The toad feels relieved because it has managed to escape the crocodile's threat.
Captions 26-28, Aprendiendo con Silvia Las emociones - Part 4
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As you can see, the toad physically gets away from a real, concrete threat — a classic case of escapar de.
Here's another example:
no se le pudo escapar de las garras a la mamita.
he couldn't escape his mommy's claws.
Caption 53, Tu Voz Estéreo Embalsamado - Part 4
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In this clip, the idea is clearly about not being able to get away from someone's grip — again, very physical and concrete.
Here's a simple rule of thumb:
• Use escapar a when the subject cannot avoid something — usually something abstract like a trend, a rule, or an influence.
• Use escapar de when someone physically flees or gets away from something — a place, a danger, or a concrete situation.
While the difference between escapar a and escapar de may seem small, choosing the wrong preposition can change the meaning significantly. Now that you know the distinction, keep an eye out for both constructions the next time you're watching Spanish-language content — you'll be surprised how often they come up!
Do you have questions about other tricky preposition combinations in Spanish? We'd love to hear from you — send us your thoughts and questions!
Have you ever wondered whether you should say el mar or la mar (the sea) in Spanish? If you're confused about whether mar is masculine or feminine, you're not alone. The truth is, this word can be both! Let's clear up the confusion.
In modern Spanish, mar is masculine in most situations. You'll use el mar in everyday conversation and writing:
En el mar de la bahía desemboca un río.
A river flows into Bahía's sea.
Caption 23, Maoli Bahía de Cata
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However, this wasn't always the case. The word mar comes from Latin, where it was neuter (neither masculine nor feminine). As Spanish developed, the word took on both genders.
While el mar is standard, la mar is still used in specific contexts:
People who work at sea traditionally use the feminine form, especially when describing the sea's condition:
• la mar calma (calm sea)
• la mar picada (choppy sea)
• la mar gruesa (rough sea)
Certain seafaring phrases always use the feminine:
• altamar (high seas)
• hacerse a la mar (to set sail)
📌 Altamar (high seas) can be written as one word or two (alta mar). Both spellings are correct, though the single-word version is increasingly preferred.
Y un cubano Muere en altamar
And a Cuban Dies on the high seas
Captions 18-19, Hecho en México Documentary - Part 14
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Writers, poets, and songwriters often choose la mar for artistic or rhythmic reasons.
Caminante, no hay camino sino estelas en la mar.
Ambler, there's no road only wakes in the sea.
Captions 29-30, Chus recita poemas Antonio Machado
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ya no tiene regreso a la mar encontrará
it has no return, it will find the sea
Captions 31-32, Hecho en México Documentary - Part 18
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When mar comes before a geographic name, it's always masculine and lowercase:
• el mar Mediterráneo (Mediterranean Sea)
• el mar Caribe (Caribbean Sea)
• el mar Rojo (Red Sea)
definitivamente tienen que ir y desplazarse a las playas del mar Caribe.
you definitely have to go and travel to the beaches of the Caribbean Sea.
Caption 29, Ciudad de Panamá Denisse introduce la ciudad
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📌 The only exception is when it's part of a place name that isn't actually a sea, like Mar del Plata (a city in Argentina).
For everyday Spanish, use el mar (masculine). You'll be correct 90% of the time. Save la mar for maritime contexts, traditional expressions, poetry, or songs.
That wraps up our lesson on el mar vs. la mar! Now you know when to use each form. We'd love to hear from you—send us your questions and feedback!
Understanding how color adjectives work in Spanish can be tricky for English speakers. While most Spanish adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in both gender and number, colors follow some unique rules that often confuse learners. If you already know how to say the colors in Spanish, this lesson will help you master when and how these color adjectives should agree with the nouns they describe.
Recently, one of our subscribers asked an excellent question about this caption from a Yabla video:
A mí me encantan los gatos naranja.
I love orange cats.
Caption 48, Renzo y Elena Animales
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The question was: "I am wondering why 'naranja' is not 'naranjas' (plural) to go with the plural 'los gatos' (plural)?"
This is a great question that gets to the heart of how color agreement works in Spanish!
Most color adjectives in Spanish behave like regular adjectives and must agree with the noun they modify in both gender and number. These include colors like rojo (red), azul (blue), verde (green), amarillo (yellow), negro (black), and blanco (white).
Let's see some examples:
la falda de cuadros rojos y verdes
the red-and-green-plaid skirt
Caption 38, Aprendiendo con Silvia Recuerdos de infancia - Part 1
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Cogemos la plastilina amarilla, un pedacito,
We take the yellow modeling clay, a little piece,
Caption 43, Dayana Colores - Part 1
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Notice how rojos and verdes change to plural to match their plural noun (cuadros), while amarilla stays in feminine singular to match the singular noun plastilina.
Here's where things get interesting! Colors that are named after objects, fruits, or flowers can work in two ways in Spanish:
1. They can remain invariable (stay singular)
2. They can agree with the noun (change to plural)
Both forms are correct! This happens with colors like:
• naranja (orange - from the fruit)
• rosa (pink - from the flower)
• violeta (violet - from the flower)
• café (brown - from coffee)
• lila (lilac - from the flower)
• turquesa (turquoise - from the stone)
So, going back to our original question, both of these sentences are perfectly correct:
Me encantan los gatos naranja.
I love orange cats.
Me encantan los gatos naranjas.
I love orange cats.
Unlike the speaker in the previous clip who used the singular form naranja, Fermín uses the plural form naranjas in the following example:
También hay variedades blancas y naranjas.
There are also white and orange varieties.
Caption 14, Fermín y las plantas Buganvilla
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The same flexibility applies to other object-derived colors with rosa and violeta.
When a color is modified by another word (like claro/oscuro for light/dark, or another color to create a shade), the most common practice is to keep everything in masculine singular, even when describing feminine or plural nouns:
"La primavera es de un verde tierno, de un azul claro y apacible como, ehm... como orejas de cochino".
"Spring is pale green, light blue and gentle blue like, um... like pigs' ears."
Captions 21-23, Pigueldito y Federico El verano
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However, agreement in feminine is also acceptable, though less common:
La pared es verde clara.
The wall is light green.
To wrap up, here's what you need to remember about color agreement in Spanish:
📌 Regular color adjectives (rojo, azul, verde, etc.) always agree with their nouns
📌 Colors derived from objects, fruits, or flowers (naranja, rosa, violeta, etc.) can either stay singular or agree with the noun—both are correct!
📌 When colors are modified by other words, they typically stay in masculine singular
We hope this clears up the confusion about color agreement in Spanish! Let us know if you have any questions, and don't hesitate to reach out with your thoughts. ¡Nos vemos pronto!
In order to answer the question asked in the title of this lesson, the first thing we need to know is how to say "sugar" in Spanish. Do you know how to say "sugar" in Spanish? Let's listen to the answer in the following clip:
Con media taza de azúcar
With half a cup of sugar
Caption 25, Ana Carolina - Ponche navideño
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Now that we know how to say "sugar" in Spanish, let's go back to our initial question: Is the word for "sugar" masculine or feminine in Spanish? Do you say el azúcar or la azúcar? Let's find out.
When it comes to gender, the word azúcar is an ambiguous Spanish noun, which means that it can be either masculine or feminine. Both are valid! Let's look at a couple of examples:
Los ingredientes principales de la torta son la piña y el azúcar moreno de caña.
The main ingredients of the cake are pineapple and brown cane sugar.
Notice how, in the example above, the word azúcar is preceded by the masculine article el and followed by the masculine adjective moreno.
La industria de la azúcar morena juega un papel muy importante en este país.
The brown sugar industry plays a very important role in this country.
In this case, the word azúcar is preceded by the feminine article la and followed by the feminine adjective morena.
Taking this ambiguity into account, it should be mentioned that if there isn't any adjective next to the word azúcar, it is more often employed as a masculine noun. Let's take a look:
Lía, por favor, cuando yo te diga
Lia, please, when I tell you,
me echas el azúcar poco a poco. -Sí.
add the sugar for me little by little. -OK.
Captions 22-23, Cleer y Lía - El día de la madre
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However, if there is an adjective next to the word, the feminine form tends to prevail, as we can see in the following clip from our friend María Fernanda:
Una vez mezclado, colocamos dos cucharadas de azúcar,
Once mixed, we add two tablespoons of sugar,
blanca o morena; en este caso yo conseguí azúcar morena.
white or brown; in this case I got brown sugar.
Captions 30-32, María Fernanda - Mascarilla de aguacate
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Azúcar isn't the only word in Spanish that is ambiguous in terms of gender. In fact, there are several additional ambiguous Spanish nouns, such as the following:
el armazón / la armazón (the frame)
el cochambre / la cochambre (the grime)
el enzima / la enzima (the enzyme)
el mar / la mar (the sea)
el vodka / la vodka (the vodka)
Unlike nouns that change meaning with gender, the unusual thing about ambiguous nouns is that they maintain the same meaning in both their masculine and feminine forms. In other words, both el azúcar and la azúcar mean "sugar."
With this final explanation, we've reached the end of this lesson. We hope that you've learned something new today, and don't forget to send us your questions and comments.
To begin this lesson, let's take a look at a caption in a Yabla video that recently baffled one our subscribers:
Obviamente, la comunicación es la esencia de este tipo de trabajos.
Obviously, communication is the essence of this type of job.
Caption 40, Negocios - La solicitud de empleo
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Spanish sentences such as this one involving "tipo de" ["type" or "types of"] tend to confuse English speakers. After all, the literal translation of this sentence would read, "Obviously, communication is the essence of this type of jobs," which doesn’t work in English since “this” is singular and “jobs” is plural. In the vast majority of similar constructions in English involving countable nouns (nouns like "leaf/leaves," "cookie/cookies," etc. that can be physically counted), there must be singular/singular or plural/plural agreement, leaving one with the choice of either "this type of job" or "these types of jobs."
However, this is not the case in Spanish since singular with plural is the most common construction, or occasionally singular with singular in the case of a single noun. Let’s look at some examples of each of these cases:
Si a todo esto añadimos otro tipo de problemas medio ambientales.
If to all this we add another kind of environmental problem.
Caption 16, 3R - Campaña de reciclaje
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Yo sí tengo la esperanza que se reduzc'... se reduzcan este tipo de eventos, ¿no?
I do have the hope that these types of occurrences will be red'... will be reduced, right?
Caption 57, Amigos D.F. - El secuestrar
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¿Qué tipo de habitación desea?
What kind of room would you like?
Caption 10, Confidencial: El rey de la estafa - Capítulo 1
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Note that in the case above, habitación is considered a single noun since the gentleman being addressed is only looking for one room; hence the singular with singular construction.
In both Spanish and English, uncountable nouns (nouns like "water," "coffee," "love," etc. that cannot be counted) go in singular with tipo de (or "type(s)" or "kind(s)") of as follows:
Y digamos que conforme se va fabricando ese tipo de líquido,
And let's say that just as that type of liquid is being produced,
Caption 92, Animales en familia - La operación de Yaki
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En ellos, recibió todo tipo de apoyo de sus simpatizantes.
In them, he got all kinds of support from his followers.
Caption 35, Andrés Manuel López Obrador - Publicidad de Obrador
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To add further confusion for English speakers (sorry!), in most such cases with "partitive" (referring to part of a whole) constructions like "tipo de," the verb can be conjugated in either singular or plural! Let's take a look at a couple of examples:
En cuanto al tipo de... trabajos que me gusta ver.
In terms of the types of... projects that I like to see.
Caption 22, Álvaro - Arquitecto Español en Londres
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Note that the verb gustar is conjugated in first person in accordance with the singular noun el tipo. However, without changing the translation, it would be perfectly acceptable to instead conjugate gustar in accordance with the plural trabajos:
En cuanto al tipo de... trabajos que me gustan ver.
In terms of the types of... projects that I like to see.
Let's look at one more example:
Además, en la conjugación de los verbos,
Also, in the conjugation of verbs,
este tipo de sufijos nos indican.
these types of suffixes tell us.
Captions 35-36, Carlos explica - Diminutivos y Aumentativos Cap 1: Los sufijos
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While indicar is conjugated in accordace with the plural noun sufijos, it could alternatively be conjugated in accordance with the singular noun tipo:
Además, en la conjugación de los verbos,
Also, in the conjugation of verbs,
este tipo de sufijos nos indica.
these types of suffixes tell us.
Finally, it is worth noting that, in the cases of particular Spanish linking verbs like ser (to be), estar (to be), or parecer (to seem), the verb is nearly always conjugated in plural when followed by a subject complement (most simply defined as an "attribute"), as follows:
Este tipo de bicicletas están pensadas
This type of bicycle is planned
para desplazamientos cortos.
for short distances.
Captions 5-6, Raquel - Alquilar una bicicleta
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To conclude, although we have focused on tipo de for the purpose of this lesson, other "partitive constructions" like el resto de (the rest of), la mayor parte de (most of), la mayoría de (most of), etc. function the same way.
We hope you've enjoyed this lesson, and don't forget to leave us your comments and suggestions.
Are you familiar with the Spanish verb gustar (to like)? Have you ever been in a situation where you didn't know whether to use gusta or gustan when talking about something you like? If using gusta vs gustan is tricky for you, here are some simple rules to help you understand the difference between gusta and gustan.
Let's start with some good news. When you want to say that you like someone or something, the only thing you need to know is how to conjugate the verb gustar in the third person either in its singular (gusta) or plural (gustan) form. Let's take a look at a couple of simple sentences with gustar:
A mí me gusta el acento de las colombianas.
I like the Colombian women's accent.
Caption 50, Confidencial: El rey de la estafa - Capítulo 2
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Sí, a mí me gustan las plantas y las flores y los árboles.
Yes, I like the plants and the flowers and the trees.
Captions 12-13, Conversaciones en el parque - Cap. 5: Me gusta mucho este parque.
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That's it. You don't need anything else. Now, let's see when to use gusta or gustan.
The following simple rules will help you to master the gustan vs gusta battle.
Use the third person singular gusta for the following cases:
1. When the verb gustar is followed by a singular noun.
Me gusta la camisa.
I like the shirt.
Caption 4, Extr@: Extra en español - Ep. 2: Sam va de compras
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Keep in mind that most of the time, you will need to place a definite article before the noun.
2. When the verb gustar is followed by a verb in the infinitive.
...y me gusta llevar faldas normalmente, sobre todo en... en invierno.
...and I like to wear skirts usually, especially in... in winter.
Captions 6-7, El Aula Azul - Actividades Diarias
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3. When the verb gustar is followed by several infinitive verbs.
A Pedro le gusta leer, tocar guitarra y hacer ejercicio.
Pedro likes to read, play guitar and exercise.
Use the third person plural gustan for the following cases:
1. When the verb gustar is followed by a plural noun.
A Lola le gustan los hombres fuertes.
Lola likes strong men.
Caption 14, Extr@: Extra en español - Ep. 1 - La llegada de Sam
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2. When the verb gustar is followed by multiple, independent nouns.
Me gustan el diseño, la decoración y la arquitectura de esa casa.
I like the design, decoration, and architecture of that house.
When asking questions or stating negative sentences, you need to stick to the same rules we mentioned before. Let's look at a couple of examples:
¿Te gusta la ciencia?
Do you like science?
Caption 42, Los Años Maravillosos - Capítulo 2
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A mí no me gusta tu camiseta.
I don't like your shirt.
Caption 12, Español para principiantes - Los colores
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¿No te gustan las velas?
You don't like candles?
Caption 38, Muñeca Brava - 7 El poema
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That's it for today. But before we leave you, we invite you to answer this very simple question so you can practice a little bit the difference between gusta and gustan: ¿Qué te gusta hacer en tu tiempo libre? And don't forget to send us your comments and suggestions.
Let's talk about gender. If you have been studying Spanish, you probably know that nouns in Spanish have a gender. For example, the word libro (book) is a masculine noun. On the contrary, the noun pelota (ball) is feminine. If you want to use those nouns with their corresponding definite articles, you will say el libro (the book) and la pelota (the ball). Now, what about the noun agua (water)? Is agua masculine or feminine? Do you say el agua or la agua?
Let's take a look at some clips:
Cuando uno tiene sed
When one is thirsty
Pero el agua no está cerca
But the water's not close by
Captions 17-18, Jarabe de Palo - Agua
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Y como para completar la historia, desperdiciaban el agua todo el tiempo.
And, as if to make matters worse, they wasted water all the time.
Caption 15, Salvando el planeta Palabra - Llegada
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Y apenas sus pies tocaron el agua,
And as soon as their feet touched the water,
se convirtieron en dos grandes serpientes.
they turned into two big snakes.
Captions 51-52, Aprendiendo con Carlos - América precolombina - El mito de Bachué
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Can you now answer our question? According to the above clips, is agua masculine or feminine? In all the previous clips, the word agua is placed right after the masculine definite article "el" so the noun agua must be masculine, right? Not so fast! Let's take a look at the following clips:
Limonadas, refrescos o simplemente agua fresca.
Lemonades, sodas or just cold water.
Caption 42, Aprendiendo con Karen - Utensilios de cocina
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Las formas de presentación incluyen el agua ozonizada y el aceite ozonizado.
The formulations include ozonized water and ozonized oil.
Caption 35, Los médicos explican - Beneficios del ozono
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Un día, los vientos del páramo agitaron las aguas de la laguna.
One day, the winds from the tundra shook up the waters of the lake.
Caption 26, Aprendiendo con Carlos - América precolombina - El mito de Bachué
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Did you see that? If you look at the first two clips, you can see that the adjectives that go after the noun agua are feminine adjectives that end with the vowel "a" (fresca and ionizada). Also, in the third clip, you can see that the term aguas (plural form of agua) is preceded by the feminine definite article "las". So, is agua masculine or feminine?
The answer is very simple: the noun agua is always feminine. However, if you are wondering why we say "el agua" and not "la agua" there is a simple rule you need to keep in mind: If a feminine noun starts with a stressed "a", you need to use the masculine definite article "el". Let's see more feminine nouns that start with a stressed "a":
el águila (the eagle)
el alma (the soul)
Nevertheless, it is important to say that for plural feminine nouns, you need to use the plural feminine definitive article "las":
las aguas (the waters)
las águilas (the eagles)
las almas (the souls)
Finally, keep in mind that if the noun is feminine the adjective needs to be feminine too. For example, let's say that we want to say "the water is dirty." Since water is feminine in Spanish, you need to use the feminine version of the adjective (sucia):
RIGHT - El agua está sucia
WRONG - El agua está sucio
So, there you have it. We hope you learned something useful today and don't forget to send us your comments and suggestions.
¡Hasta la próxima!
Si no or sino? That is the question of today's lesson. Do you know when to write one or the other? Both expressions seem very similar but they don’t necessarily mean the same thing. Although even native speakers make mistakes when writing these words, the truth is they are used in specific cases that are easily recognizable. Let's start this lesson with a little quiz:
Which one would you use in the following sentence?:
Amalia no ha llegado al apartamento; ____ ya me hubiera llamado.
Amalia hasn't arrived at the apartment; otherwise she would have called me already.
What about in this one?:
No solamente cubre la ciudad de Bogotá, ____ varios municipios alrededor de... de Bogotá.
It doesn't just cover the city of Bogota, but rather several municipalities around... Bogota.
We will unveil the answers at the end of this lesson. Now, let's dive into the difference between si no and sino.
Si no is made of two parts. The conditinal conjunction 'si' and the negation 'no'. We use si no to introduce a negative conditional sentence. In particular, we use si no when it works as "otherwise" to imply the idea of "on the contrary". Let's see a couple of examples:
Porque todos son amantes de los animales, si no, no vendrían a vernos.
Because they are all animal lovers, otherwise, they wouldn't come to see us.
Captions 45-46, Santuario para burros - Voluntarios
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¿Grabó esto sin su permiso?
Did you record this without her permission?
Claro que sí. Si no, no la habría descubierto.
Of course. Otherwise, I wouldn't have discovered it.
Captions 52-54, Los casos de Yabla - El perrito malcriado
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In Spanish, the word sino is a conjunction that usually works as the English equivalent "but" or "but rather". Generally speaking, we use it to create a contrast between and affirmative statement that is placed right after a negative one. Let's see a couple of examples:
Que no es una chica, sino un chico. -Oh...
That's it's not a girl, but rather a boy. -Oh...
Caption 40, Extr@: Extra en español - Ep. 1 - La llegada de Sam
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Por esta razón, no decimos "uno libro", sino "un libro".
For this reason, we don't say "uno libro," but rather "un libro" ["a book"].
Caption 39, Carlos explica - Los Números: Números Cardinales
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Sometimes, we also use sino when we want to state an exception:
Nadie lo sabe sino tu padre.
Nobody except your father knows it.
And finally, we use sino when we want to add more elements to a single statement, usually with the formula 'no solo... sino también' (not only... but also):
Unas de las bandas más importantes de Latinoamérica,
One the most important bands in Latin America,
este... no sólo por su trabajo musical,
um... not only because of their musical work,
sino también por su trabajo social y activismo ambiental.
but also because of their social work and environmental activism.
Captions 10-12, Doctor Krápula - Entrevista
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Considering all of the above, it is time to solve the questions we posed at the beginning of this lesson. Let's unveil the answers:
Amalia no ha llegado al apartamento; si no ya me hubiera llamado.
Amalia hasn't arrived at the apartment; otherwise she would have called me already.
Caption 19, Confidencial: El rey de la estafa - Capitulo 4
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No solamente cubre la ciudad de Bogotá, sino varios municipios alrededor de... de Bogotá.
It doesn't just cover the city of Bogota, but rather several municipalities around... Bogota.
Captions 57-58, Bogotá - Chorro de Quevedo
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That's it for today. We hope this lesson helped you to understand when to write sino and si no. And don't forget to send us your feedback and suggestions.
Let’s start this lesson with a short quiz. Imagine that you want to say the following sentence in Spanish:
“There were many books in that apartment.” You have two options:
a. Había muchos libros en ese apartamento
OR
b. Habían muchos libros en ese apartamento
Which one is the correct form? Había in singular or habían in plural?
To answer our question, we need to say that había and habían belong to the imperfect tense of the Spanish verb haber. Let’s take a look at that conjugation:
Now, very often, we use the verb haber as the auxiliary verb “to have”:
...todas las cosas que había estado buscando, ¿no?
...all the things that I had been looking for, right?
Caption 5, Belanova - Entrevista
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However, in the sentence we are discussing here, we are not using haber as the auxiliary verb “to have,” but rather as an element that allows us to make a reference to the existence of many books in a particular place (the apartment). In other words, we are using haber as the equivalent of there is / there are in English.
When we use haber with that intention, we ALWAYS have to use its singular form even if what comes after it is a plural noun! Because of that, the correct answer to our opening question is the following:
a. Había muchos libros en ese apartamento
Now that we understand that we need to use the singular había and not the plural form habían, let’s look at a couple of examples of how to properly use había when talking about the presence or existence of things or people in a particular place:
Aquí había unas comidas para llevar.
There were some takeout places here.
Caption 8, 75 minutos - Gangas para ricos
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Porque había diferentes explicaciones de…
Because there were different explanations of…
Caption 31, El Aula Azul - Dos historias
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Porque había muchos obstáculos para ese encuentro.
Because there were many obstacles for that meeting.
Caption 34, La Sub30 - Familias
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Y había muchos seres extraños.
And there were many strange beings.
Caption 43, Salvando el planeta Palabra - Llegada
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No había máquinas de estas.
There were no machines like these.
Caption 37, Tortillería La Nueva Única - Entrevista con don Alfonso
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By the way, it is worth saying that many Spanish speakers make the mistake of using habían instead of había in the context we just discussed. In fact, many people think that what comes after the verb haber is the subject of the sentence, which is not the case.
That’s it for now. We hope this lesson will help you to avoid making this very common mistake in Spanish. And don’t forget to send us your feedback and suggestions.
Using "haber de" to Express Necessity or Possibility
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