Question about haber

[hola]

anyone know how the word HABER is properly and appropriately used? they say it means "to have." but i already thought that the spanish words for "to have" were TENGO and TIENES. i dont see where the word HABER fits in. can someone provide example sentences illustrating the differences between when and where HABER, TENGO, and TIENES are used? but i often see people put in in sentences where i didnt think it belonged. an example is i couldnt have done it without you. i figured the way to say it would be no he podido hacerlo sin usted. but a majority of people put the word HABERLO in there somewhere after the word podido. they dont even use the word HACERLO. so what does it mean and how and when is it used?

[Rusty]

The Spanish word for 'to have' is tener. Tengo and tienes are two present tense conjugations of the infinitive tener (to have). Tengo means 'I have' and tienes means 'you have'.

Haber has a few uses. The first one I'll talk about is when it means 'have', or, to be more exact, when it functions as an auxiliary verb in the perfect tense.

'I have studied' is said (yo) he estudiado. The subject pronoun (yo) is optional. That second word is the 1st person singular form of 'haber'. The third word is the past participle form of estudiar (to study).
You can find all the perfect tense conjugations here. Look at items 8-14.

The other use of 'haber' is the irregular 'hay', which means 'there is' or 'there are' in the present tense. There are other tenses, like había ('there were') and habrá ('there will be').

Here are some examples:

I have a car. = Tengo un coche.
Do you have a car? = ¿Tienes un coche?
I have bought a car. = He comprado un coche.
Is there a car in the garage? = ¿Hay un coche en el garaje?
I wonder if there's a car in the garage. = ¿Habrá un coche en el garaje?

I couldn't have done it without you.
= No podía haberlo hecho sin usted. (action occurred in the past)
= No podría haberlo hecho sin usted. (conditional action expressed here)

This needs a little explaining.
The first verb (no podía/no podría) is the "I couldn't" part. To say 'have done', we need to use the perfect tense. Remember, the perfect tense uses the auxiliary verb haber and a past participle. In this case, the English word 'done' is the past participle form of 'to do' (hacer). The Spanish past participle form of hacer is hecho. Haber hecho is the result. So far, we have no podía haber hecho. Now we need to introduce the direct object pronoun 'it' (lo) into the sentence. This can go after the word no, as in no lo podía, or it can be suffixed to haber, as in haberlo, and that is the place I decided to put it.

Hope this helps.

[CrOtALiTo]

Rusty, I don't understand it, How I can to say the word HABER.

Please, could you explain me about it.?

[hola]

you have clarified it more than anyone else i asked. thank you. i really appreciate that.

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by CrOtALiTo

Rusty, I don't understand it, How I can to say the word HABER.

Please, could you explain me about it.?

Here is what I think you meant to say:

Rusty, I don't understand how I can use the word HABER in English. Could you please explain it to me?
(Rusty, no entiendo cómo usar la palabra haber en inglés. ¿Me puedes explicarlo, por favor?)

If that isn't what you were asking, what don't you understand?

If you're asking how to translate haber into English, we say 'to have'. For example:
haber visto = to have seen
haber ido = to have gone
haber leido = to have read
haber comido = to have eaten
haber vivido = to have lived

In each of these examples, the unconjugated verb haber is a helping verb, or an auxiliary verb. In each example, the auxiliary verb is followed by a past participle. This is the perfect tense (tiempo perfecto).
Here are some conjugated examples:
he visto = I have seen; había visto = I had seen; habría visto = I would have seen; etc.
has ido = you have gone; habías ido = you had gone; etc.
hemos leido = we have read; habíamos leido = we had read; etc.
él ha comido = he has eaten; él había comido = he had eaten; etc.
ellos han vivido = they have lived; ellos habían vivido = they had lived; etc.

Does this explanation answer your question?

[Marcos]

Rusty, you really know your stuff. It's a pleasure to read your responses.