My Home
Mi Casa
After this lesson, you'll be able to:
- ✓Use hay (there is/are) to describe what exists
- ✓Use estar for location of specific things
- ✓Name rooms and common furniture
- ✓Describe your home to someone
Grammar Focus
Essential grammar for this lesson with examples.
Recap: What Stage 1 Covered
In Stage 1, you learned the foundations of Spanish. You can introduce yourself with ser ("Soy Ana"), describe feelings with estar ("Estoy bien"), talk about what you like with gustar ("Me gusta el café"), conjugate regular present tense verbs, and use adjectives with gender agreement. You also learned ser vs estar, possessives, and how to describe your family. Now in Stage 2, we build on all of that to talk about your world - starting with your home.
Here are some examples of what you already know:
Examples:
Hay - There Is / There Are
The word hay (pronounced like "eye") comes from the verb haber and means both "there is" and "there are". It never changes form - it's the same for singular and plural. Use hay to say that something exists somewhere.
In questions, hay becomes "is there" or "are there" - just add question marks in Spanish.
Examples:
Hay vs Estar - The Key Difference
This is one of the trickiest concepts for English speakers because both hay and estar translate as "there is" or "is" in English. The rule is simple: hay introduces something new (it exists), while estar tells you where something specific is located.
Examples:
Rooms of the House
Learning the rooms of a house gives you the building blocks to describe where you live. Notice that each room has a gender (masculine or feminine) which determines whether you use el or la.
See the full list of rooms and furniture in the Vocabulary tab for this lesson.
Examples:
Describing Rooms with ser + estar + hay
Now you can combine all three tools to fully describe a room. Use ser for characteristics (what it's like), estar for location (where it is), and hay for existence (what's in it). This gives you a powerful way to talk about any space.
Three Ways to Describe a Room
| Verb | Use | Example | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ser | ser | Characteristics | La sala es pequeña. |
| estar | estar | Location | La sala está en el segundo piso. |
| hay | hay | What exists inside | Hay un sofá en la sala. |
Examples:
Question Forms with hay
You can ask several types of questions with hay. These are essential when visiting someone's home or looking for an apartment - which is exactly what Ana is doing this week!
Examples:
Prepositions of Place (Introduction)
Prepositions of place tell you where things are positioned. You'll need these to describe furniture placement and room layouts. We'll expand on these in Week 2 when we talk about the city.
Examples:
Conversation Example
Ana and Pablo meet for coffee. Ana tells Pablo about her apartment search.
🌍 Housing in the Spanish-Speaking World
Housing styles vary widely across the Spanish-speaking world. In Spain, most people live in "pisos" (apartments/flats) rather than houses, especially in cities like Madrid and Barcelona. In Mexico, apartments are called "departamentos". Many traditional Spanish and Latin American homes feature a "patio interior" - an interior courtyard that brings light and air into the home. This architectural tradition dates back to Roman and Moorish influences. Another beloved tradition is the "sobremesa" - the time spent lingering at the table after a meal, chatting with family and friends. In many homes, the dining room (el comedor) is designed to be comfortable for these long conversations.