No. 1,351 in Spanish
había
"Había" means "there was" or "there were."
In a sentence
Había una vez un castillo en lo alto de la montaña.
There once was a castle on the top of the mountain.
Describes a past state or existence using the imperfect tense.
Había muchas personas esperando en la puerta.
There were many people waiting at the door.
Indicates a past situation or presence using the imperfect tense in a descriptive manner.
Había ocurrido algo extraño en el vecindario.
Something strange had happened in the neighborhood.
Expresses a past action that had occurred using the past perfect tense.
Hear it in real podcasts
The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “había” in actual Spanish podcasts.
Find “había” in podcastsLearn it from shows you like
LangTurbo plays Spanish podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there.
Get the appSpanish books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).