How do you know when to use "había" or "hubo" in a Spanish sentence?

Question

Like for example in this sentence: Ayer en mi casa _____ una fiesta.

How would you know whether to use había or hubo? What is their difference?

Answer 1

Well in this case it would be hubo una fiesta. If you put habia, it does not sound right gramatically. habia is more slang, that is what the difference would be. its like if someone says, habia un monton de chocolate alli. it would be hubo un monton de chocolate alli

Answer 2

Hubo is in the past tense. Habia is in imperfect. You put HUBO when you mean that something happened just one time in the past, like AYER HUBO UNA FIESTA, just happened once, yesterday. You mainly use the imperfect to describe something that used to happen in the past, many times, like CUANDO ERA JOVEN HABIAN (plural of habia) MUCHAS FIESTAS EN MI CASA.

Hope it helps.

Answer 3

Hubo. It happened once, it's over and finished.

Habia (can't do the accent) would describe something that happened in the past, but happened frequently "habia fiestas todos los sabados en nuestra pueblicito."