Conjugating the Spanish Verb Haber (to Have)
Spanish verbs fall into different groups, and each group is conjugated a little differently. Haber (ah-bvehr) (to have) is used only with compound tenses. It serves as a helping verb that completes an action; the action is expressed with the past participle. With the addition of haber, a verb in the past tense becomes more past, a conditional statement can be completed, and a future action can be finished. Haber turns did into had done, would into would have, and will into will have.
Haber is a verb that sometimes acts like a regular -er verb, and other times it acts like an irregular verb. All seven tenses of haber are included here to aid your understanding of compound tenses.
When you add a past participle to the present tense of haber, you form the present perfect tense. Here’s haber conjugated in the present tense:
The Present Tense of Haber
| Conjugation |
Translation |
| yo he |
I have |
| tú has |
You (informal) have |
| él/ella/ello/uno ha |
He/she/one has |
| usted ha |
You (formal) have |
| nosotros hemos |
We have |
| vosotros habéis |
You all (informal) have |
| ellos/ellas han |
They have |
| ustedes han |
You all (formal) have |
The following examples show you haber in action in the present perfect tense:
The preterit tense of haber is used to form the preterit perfect tense of any verb. Haber has an irregular conjugation in the preterit tense, so you need to memorize the conjugations in the following table:
The Preterit Tense of Haber
| Conjugation |
Translation |
| yo hube |
I had |
| tú hubiste |
You (informal) had |
| él/ella/ello/uno hubo |
He/she/one had |
| usted hubo |
You (formal) had |
| nosotros hubimos |
We had |
| vosotros hubisteis |
You all (informal) had |
| ellos/ellas hubieron |
They had |
| ustedes hubieron |
You all (formal) had |
You use haber in the preterit perfect tense like this:
Una vez que hubimos visto toda la película, salimos del cine. (Once we had seen all of the movie, we left the theater.)
Tan pronto como ellos hubieron terminado el trabajo, recibieron el dinero. (As soon as they had finished the work, they received the money.)
The imperfect tense of haber is used to form the pluperfect tense of any verb. It follows the regular conjugation for -er verbs in the imperfect. Here’s how it’s conjugated:
The Imperfect Tense of Haber
| Conjugation |
Translation |
| yo había |
I used to have |
| tú habías |
You (informal) used to have |
| él/ella/ello/uno había |
He/she/one used to have |
| usted había |
You (formal) used to have |
| nosotros habíamos |
We used to have |
| vosotros habíais |
You all (informal) used to have |
| ellos/ellas habían |
They used to have |
| ustedes habían |
You all (formal) used to have |
Here are some examples of the pluperfect tense:
Él nos había llamado antes de la fiesta. (He had called before the party.)
Los estudiantes habían practicado por dos horas antes del partido de fútbol. (The students had practiced two hours before the soccer game.)
When you get to the present perfect tense, you use the future tense of haber, and this is one time when haber decides to conjugate irregularly. The stem morphs into habr-, and then you add the regular future verb endings. The following chart shows you how it’s done.
The Future Tense of Haber
| Conjugation |
Translation |
| yo habré |
I will have |
| tú habrás |
You (informal) will have |
| él/ella/ello/uno habrá |
He/she/one will have |
| usted habrá |
You (formal) will have |
| nosotros habremos |
We will have |
| vosotros habréis |
You all (informal) will have |
| ellos/ellas habrán |
They will have |
| ustedes habrán |
You all (formal) will have |
The following samples put the future perfect tense to work:
Ella habría enseñado por trienta y cinco años para el fin de este año. (She will have taught for 35 years at the end of this year.)
Los estudiantes habrán vendido todas las galletas dulces para el viernes. (The students will have sold all of the cookies by Friday.)
The conditional tense of haber is used to form — what else? — the conditional perfect tense. The great thing about this is that if you’ve mastered the future tense of haber, the conditional tense should be a piece of cake. Why? Because you use the irregular verb stem habr- and add the conditional verb endings. Here’s how it goes:
The Conditional Tense of Haber
| Conjugation |
Translation |
| yo habría |
I would have |
| tú habrías |
You (informal) would have |
| él/ella/ello/uno habría |
He/she/one would have |
| usted habría |
You (formal) would have |
| nosotros habríamos |
We would have |
| vosotros habríais |
You all (informal) would have |
| ellos/ellas habrían |
They would have |
| ustedes habrían |
You all (formal) would have |
The following samples use the conditional perfect tense:
Felipe habría gastado más dinero si lo tuviera. (Felipe would have spent more money if he’d had it.)
Nuestro equipo habría ganado, pero los dos mejores jugadores estaban enfermos. (Our team would have won, but our two best players were sick.)
The present perfect subjunctive tense relies on haber conjugated in the present subjunctive. The following table shows the present subjunctive conjugation of haber:
The Present Subjunctive Tense of Haber
| Conjugation |
Translation |
| yo haya |
I may have |
| tú hayas |
You (informal) may have |
| él/ella/ello/uno haya |
He/she/one may have |
| usted haya |
You (formal) may have |
| nosotros hayamos |
We may have |
| vosotros hayaís |
You all (informal) may have |
| ellos/ellas hayan |
They may have |
| ustedes hayan |
You all (formal) may have |
The following samples illustrate how the present perfect subjunctive tense works:
Espero que ellos hayan terminado su trabajo a tiempo. (I hope that they have finished their work on time.)
El entrenador no está seguro de que su equipo haya practicado suficiente. (The coach isn’t sure that his team has practiced enough.)
The pluperfect subjunctive tense uses the imperfect tense of haber. Don’t forget to switch the stem to hub-. Check out the following chart to see how the conjugation goes:
The Imperfect Tense of Haber
| Conjugation |
Translation |
| yo hubiera |
I would have |
| tú hubieras |
You (informal) would have |
| él/ella/ello/uno hubiera |
He/she/one would have |
| usted hubiera |
You (formal) would have |
| nosotros hubiéramos |
We would have |
| vosotros hubierais |
You all (informal) would have |
| ellos/ellas hubieran |
They would have |
| ustedes hubieran |
You all (formal) would have |
Here are some example sentences using the pluperfect subjunctive tense:
Ella no estaba segura de que ellos hubieran comprador el tamaño correcto. (She wasn’t sure that they had bought the correct size.)
Ellos esperaban que el paquete hubiera llegado. (They hoped that the package had arrived.)

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adjective
A word that describes a noun or pronoun, giving it specific attributes or characteristics.

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adverb
A word used to modify a verb, adjective, or another adverb by expressing time, place, degree, and so on. Many Spanish adverbs end in -mente.

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bartering
Giving goods or services in return for other goods and services, as opposed to the exchange of money.

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cardinal number
Any number used in counting or showing how many.

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comparative
A form of an adjective or adverb which indicates that one thing has some feature to a greater or lesser extent than the thing it is being compared to. Example: slower, more believable.

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conditional
A verb tense that expresses an action that should have, could have, or would have happened if the conditions were right.

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conjugate
To give different forms of a verb according to voice, mood, tense, number, and person. A conjugated verb is a verb that has been changed from its infinitive form to a form that agrees with the subject.

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consonant
Any of the letters b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, ñ, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z; the double letters ch, ll, and rr may also be considered consonants in Spanish.

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customs
1. The government agency in charge of collecting taxes or duties imposed on imported and/or exported goods. 2. The common social acts and conventions of a particular area.

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declare
To inform customs officials of any goods you’re carrying that may be taxable.

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definite article
Any one of the words el, la, los, or las used as adjectives to point out a specific noun.

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demonstrative adjective
An adjective that indicates or points out this, that, these, or those people, places, or things to which a speaker is referring.

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demonstrative pronoun
Replaces a demonstrative adjective and its noun.

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diminutive
1. Small. 2. A word that has been altered with a suffix to indicate a degree of smallness, often ending with -ito or -ita.

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diphthong
A complex vowel sound made by gliding from one vowel sound to the next within the same syllable.

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direct object noun
A sentence element that answers the question, Whom or what is the subject acting upon? and may refer to people, places, things, or ideas.

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direct object pronoun
Replaces a direct object noun and agrees with it in number and gender.

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duty
A tax imposed on imports, exports, or manufactured goods.

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future
Verb tense indicating an action to come.

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gerund
A verb form that ends in -ing and works like a noun. Spanish gerunds are also derived from verbs.

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haggling
Negotiations between a seller and a buyer to come to an agreement upon the price of an item for sale. The vendor typically proposes a high price while the buyer suggests a significantly lower price, and, through bartering, the two typically meet somewhere in the middle.

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imperative
A verb mood that indicates a command or request.

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imperfect
Verb tense indicating a continuing, uncompleted, customary, or simultaneous past action.

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indefinite article
Any one of the words un, una, unos, or unas used as adjectives to point out some person, place, thing, or idea, but not a specific one.

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indirect object noun
Answers the question To or for whom is the subject doing something? and refers only to people or beloved pets.

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indirect object pronoun
Replaces an indirect object noun, but is also used when the indirect object noun is mentioned.

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infinitive
The unconjugated form of a verb — dormir (to sleep), for example.

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interrogative adverb
An adverb used to ask a question.

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interrogative pronoun
A word that replaces a noun and is used to ask a question.

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market
1. (noun) In Spanish cultures, a traditional market is where vendors gather to sell their goods. Markets may be open or under a roof, and they offer a less formal shopping environment than typical supermarkets or grocery stores. Prices are usually negotiable. 2. (verb) To advertise and sell an item.

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mood
1. A characteristic of a verb that indicates the manner in which the action occurs. 2. A characteristic of a person that indicates the overall emotional state of that person.

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ordinal number
A number used to indicate order in a particular series.

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past participle
A form of a verb that expresses a completed action or a time gone by.

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possessive adjective
A word that goes before the noun that’s possessed in order to express my, your, his, her, its, our, or their.

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possessive pronoun
A word that replaces a noun and its possessive adjective and indicates ownership.

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preposition
A word that connects nouns to nouns, verbs to verbs, or verbs to nouns/pronouns and shows their relationship to one another.

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prepositional pronoun
A pronoun that serves as the object of a preposition and always follows the preposition.

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preterit
Verb tense expressing a past action or state.

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pronoun
A word that takes the place of a noun in a sentence.

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reflexive pronoun
A pronoun used in conjunction with a reflexive verb to express that an action is performed by a subject on itself.

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reflexive verb
A verb that indicates that the sentence's subject is acting upon itself. Reflexive verbs require reflexive pronouns.

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stem-changing verb
A verb that requires an internal change in the vowel before the -ar, -er, or -ir infinitive ending in all the singular and third-person plural forms of certain tenses.

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subject pronoun
A pronoun used as a subject.

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subjunctive
A grammatical mood indicating uncertainty, desire, supposition, hypothetical and theoretical situations, or impersonal opinions.

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subordinate clause
A part of a sentence containing a subject and verb that can’t stand on its own but describes something in the larger sentence.

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suffix
Letters added to the end of a word that change its meaning, give it a different grammatical function, or form a new word.

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superlative
A form of an adjective or adverb which indicates that one thing has some feature to a greater degree than anything it is being compared to. Example: greatest, most honorable

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syllable
A word or part of a word pronounced with a single sound, usually consisting of a vowel and one or more consonants.

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tilde
A mark (~) used in Spanish over an n to indicate the ny sound.

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vowel
Any of the letters a, e, i, o, and u. The letter y is never a vowel in the Spanish language, unlike its use in English.