12

These are commonly misused when writing, and can be very confusing for someone that is learning Spanish. These three words have a very different meaning and they are used in a very different context.

How would you explain to a beginner what are the main differences and what would you advise to avoid misuse?

aparente001
  • 10,747
  • 7
  • 32
  • 55
isJustMe
  • 1,568
  • 2
  • 15
  • 20

1 Answers1

11

ahí: Used to indicate the location of something.

La pelota está ahí.

ay: To express pain or exclamation.

Ay, me duele mucho.

¡Ay, qué bonito!

hay: From the verb "haber".

Hay problemas muy difíciles.

LostMyGlasses
  • 105
  • 3
Alfredo Osorio
  • 10,650
  • 34
  • 76
  • 119
  • nice, and what would you advise to avoid misuse? – isJustMe Nov 16 '11 at 17:23
  • 3
    It's worth noting that many people (at least in Mexico) write 'hay' when they mean 'ay'. It confused me for a while. – Flimzy Nov 16 '11 at 17:24
  • yeah, is misleading sometimes I even get confused to,I wonder why most of the people (at least in Mexico) can't get it right. – isJustMe Nov 16 '11 at 17:30
  • @Filmzy I'm from Mexico too. I agree that even for native speakers it is difficult and in some case is written wrong, in this cases the context helps to determine what was intended to say. – Alfredo Osorio Nov 16 '11 at 17:31
  • When you say misuse do you mean misspelling while writing or using the wrong word while speaking? – Laura Nov 16 '11 at 17:35
  • it would be when writing and how you actually understand the differences of these words, you would be surprised to know how many people don't know when to use that one (i'm no talking about wrong spelling only) – isJustMe Nov 16 '11 at 17:41
  • Oh, no, it doesn´t surprise me, a lot of native speakers misuse it but the only way to get it right is to think if you are writing a verb (hay) and to know that all the forms from "haber" are spelled with initial "h", if you are writting an onomatopoeia "ay" or if you are writing a location adverd "ahí", easy to remember because it's the only form that is pronounced as a two-syllabe word... more than that I can't think in any rule or trick to remember how to use them. – Laura Nov 16 '11 at 17:48
  • 6
    @Rafael.IT maybe memorizing this sentece will help you to avoid confusion: Ahí hay un hombre que dice ¡ay! – dusan Nov 17 '11 at 16:51
  • 2
    @Flimzy: As a Mexican I can say that I have the theory that people do not write this correctly because of one of three reasons: lack of education, laziness or, they just do not care about writing it properly. IMHO. – Sergio Romero May 30 '12 at 14:00