If you’ve been learning Portuguese for a while, and if you’ve done our unit on -ER Verbs, you may have noticed a glaring absence: the verb haver, one of the most essential Portuguese verbs.
haver
Haver may be common, but it’s an odd beast, as we shall see in the next two lessons. The verb haver is mainly used in three different ways: to indicate that something exists, to indicate that something has happened in the past, or to say that something will happen in the future.
Main Verb
When used as a main verb to indicate the existence of something, the verb haver is impersonal (meaning it has no subject), so you only see it in one form:
háthere is
houvethere was
haviathere was, there used to be
haveráthere will be
Auxiliary Verb
However, haver is also used as an auxiliary verb, in which case it can be conjugated in different tenses and persons. In practice, it is only used in this way in very few tenses.
For the purposes of this lesson, let’s take a quick look at some of the most common tenses of the verb haver in Portuguese:
The Verb Haver in the Indicative (Indicativo)
Examples!
Now let’s cover some examples from each tense which highlight the most common uses of the verb haver.
Presente (haver de & há)
When the verb haver is used in the present tense in combination with the preposition de, haver is actually used to talk about the future. You won’t hear this very often, though, as it’s a quite formal usage.
Similarly, it can be used to make a request, implying “in the future, as soon as you have the time / it is convenient”.
- Sr. Pereira, há de me ver se tem o meu agrafador.Mr. Pereira, could you check for me whether you have my stapler?
The most common form you will see and hear is just háthere is , which can actually be used to refer to the present or the past, depending on the context. As mentioned previously, in this case it is an impersonal verb, meaning it has no subject.
- Há leite no frigoríficoThere is milk in the refrigerator
- As piscinas fecharam há cinco minutosThe pools closed five minutes ago
- Não falo com os meus primos há muito tempoI have not spoken to my cousins in a long time
Pretérito Perfeito
- HouveThere was
- Quando nós nos conhecemos, houve uma atração imediataWhen we met there was an immediate attraction
Imperfeito
- HaviaThere was, There used to be
- Havia um banco aquiThere was a bank here, There used to be a bank here
Futuro
Learning More
Mark as complete to continue to the first lesson of Haver unit to practice some of the most common uses. We’ll learn more about this verb in this unit’s upcoming learning notes, or you can skip ahead to read about:
- Haver as To Exist/To Have – há
- Talking About the Future with Haver – haver + de
- Talking About the Past with Haver – há + time related phrase, houve, havia
Perhaps it’s just me! But I’m finding “haver” which is one if the most essential Portuguese verbs, to also be one of the most complicated!
It’s not just you! Haver is very complicated. Luckily if you just remember há, houve, havia, and haverá, that will get you through most everyday situations. Há is used quite often in particular, which you’ll read more about in the Learning Notes later in the haver unit.
Thanks Molly, I hoped you might say that! I spend several Months each year living in Portugal, and always see signs like “Há percebes” etc. I did ask a Portuguese friend and he said it just means “they have percebes” but couldn’t help grammatically!
Exactly! I think this is one of those cases where, ironically, the less you think about the underlying grammar, the better. You just start to understand how to use it over time as you see more examples in different contexts.
Olá Robert.
What are percebes. I understand it as the informal conjugation of the verb perceber,i.e “Tu percebes”? Is it a type of food, or something else?
Hi David, percebes are a very popular seafood! I think in English they are called “goose barnacles”! They are really nice, and taste a bit like eating the sea!
Hi Robert.
My son and family live in Ericeira which is a real seafood town. Will have to look out for them in August ( fingers crossed that I can get there)!!
Thanks for that very interesting information.
I love Ericeira David, fantastic town, spent several “noites do Anno Novo” in Ericeira. Fabulous restaurants, plenty of percebes👍
That will do for me for now
Are houve and havia interchangeable, or are there rules on when one or the other should be used? One lesson gives these examples:
Houve uma explosão (There was an explosion)
Havia um parque aqui (There was a park here, There used to be a park here)
Would it be correct usage to replace these with
Havia uma explosão
and
Houve um parque aqui?
Olá, Alex. Sometimes, both can be used, but they’re not quite interchangeable, because the meaning/emphasis changes.
– When you’re talking about events such as an explosion, which happen in a single point in time, only the simple past (houve) is acceptable. So, “houve uma explosão” is fine to use, but “havia uma explosão” is not.
– When you’re talking about events or things where a certain continuity is possible and the end point isn’t clear, or isn’t your main focus, the imperfect (havia) can be used. The imperfect tense suggests a vaguer timeline than the simple past, like a smudge vs. a sharp dot. That’s the (small) difference between “Havia um parque aqui” and “Houve um parque aqui”. Both sentences can be used, but the former is like a blurry picture, whereas the latter is more focused and emphasizes that the action is over.
The imperfect is especially suitable for past narrations and descriptions. For example: “Naquela rua, havia uma casa grande que não tinha dono” (On that street, there was a big house that had no owner). Again, this applies when a certain continuity is possible. A house can be there for a long time, but an explosion doesn’t last indefinitely. However, you could write something like, “Havia uma explosão todas as noites” (There would be an explosion every night; There was an explosion every night), because in that case, you’d be describing something that was habitual (habitual past), continuous, rather than one-off.
I haven’t found a unit talking about the usage of the verb haver in conjuntive (presente, imperfecto e futuro). Is there one? Obrigado.
Olá! The verb is also used in the subjunctive (conjuntivo), but no differently from any other verb. It’s only in the indicative that it has some very specific uses (e.g. talking about the past and future). In the subjunctive units, you will find some exercises with this verb. We’ll work on adding a few more exercises/information across the units.
In the pretérito perfeito example Quando nós nos conhecemos, houve uma atração imediata.
Why is houve used as this refers to eu, ele, ela or você according to the chart?
In this sentence houve is used as a main verb to indicate the existence of something, so this is an example of how haver can be used as an impersonal verb. Even though you see houve under the 3rd person category, it doesn’t actually describe the action of a person/entity here.
You could think of the subject as “it”, rather than he, she, you, etc, but this “it” is basically a stand-in.
This is similar to when you say “It was raining” / “There was nothing to do” / “It’s 2 o’clock” / “It seems that…” in English. The subject is not defined, it’s just referring to a particular state / existence.
I hope that helps!
Thanks Molly
I guessed this was the case but very confusing under the heading préterito perfeito. I seem to be struggling with haver!
Hello,
I am confused by the example “Não falo com os meus primos há muito tempo” which is translated to “I haven’t spoken..”. So shouldn’t it be “Não falei/ falava” instead of the present “falo”?
Thank you for helping 😉
Olá! That is indeed the appropriate correspondence in Portuguese 🙂
– “Não falo com os meus primos há muito tempo” -> I have not spoken to my cousins in a long time (present time)
– “Não falava com os meus primos há muito tempo” -> I had not spoken to my cousins in a long time (past time)
how does ‘haver de’ compare to the Spanish ‘tener que’? I always thought ‘Tener Que’ had the same meaning as ‘deber’ , but the Portuguese ‘haver de’ seems to be less certain than the verb ‘dever’.
Obrigado
“Haver de” it is less certain than “dever”. I don’t speak Spanish fluently but “Tener que” relates more to “ter que” or “ter de” in Portuguese, which is more certain, like “dever”.
“Sr. Pereira, há de me ver se tem o meu agrafador.”
I know there was a translation provided…I also would suppose that “Mr. Pereira, could you see if you have my stapler?” also works and is a little bit easier in the mental translation since “ver” is used in its “to see” sense of the word…but where does that “me” come from? It doesn’t show up when you translate it and while I understand not everything shows up in a word-for-word way in translation, my confusion comes simply from why that word is used to begin with in Portuguese. Would a more literal translation be “for me, could you check…” or something? I ask for future understanding purpose, of course.
Olá! Thanks for your comment. That “me” is not essential, but it’s a very idiomatic component. As you guessed, it’s a way of saying that the person will do something “for me” (e.g. ‘could you check for me’). I’ve updated the translation to bring it closer to the Portuguese sentence, as that should help with understanding 🙂
Hi!
Why is there a second nos here:
Quando nós nos conhecemos, houve uma atração imediata?
Olá! Those are two different words. “Nós” (with accent) is a personal pronoun, meaning “we”. “Nos” (without accent) is a reflexive pronoun, linked to the verb form ‘conhecemos’. In this context, it indicates that they met each other, rather than meeting someone/something else.
Hi!
Why isn’t it conhecemo-nos?
As you can see in these Learning Notes:
https://www.practiceportuguese.com/learning-notes/verb-phrases-clitic-pronouns/
https://www.practiceportuguese.com/learning-notes/introduction-to-clitic-object-pronouns/
the adverb “Quando” works as a “magnetic word”, which pulls the clitic pronoun “nos” before the verb!
Thank you! That was just the clearest and most assimilable explanation I’ve ever encountered of this versatile verb.
Given Portuguese’s lacking an impersonal pronoun, just a quick query:
If you wanted to translate “One has an empty stomach at the end of the morning”, could this be approached with “Há um estômago vazio no final da manhã”? What I mean is, could one in this way retain the personal reference implicit in the English sentence, or would it have been simply better to use “Alguém tem um estômago vazio no final da manhã”?
I’d say that any of those could work, depending on the context. However, we’d usually just phrase it “O estômago fica vazio ao final da manhã”. Not so pretty as the English form, but it would be more common I guess.
I saw há and haverá used seemingly interchangeably in sentences such as
Há uma loja neste rua?
Haverá uma loja neste rua? (meaning the same as the above one – is there a store in this street?)
Is there a difference? )
Yes, both “Há um loja nesta rua?” and “Haverá uma loja nesta rua?” mean almost the same.
However, the latter may not be as common in European Portuguese. “Haverá” is actually the third person future tense. So, the sentence “Haverá uma loja nesta rua?” is something more hypothetical, meaning something like “Will I find a store on this street?”. It’s not as direct. It’s more like a rhetoric question, not expecting an actual answer.
As for “Há uma loja nesta rua?”, this is something more straightforward, asking directly “Is there a store on this street?”.
🙂
PP’s example: Há muito tempo que não vejo o teu pai. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen your father.
Would it be possible to say: Há muito tempo que vejo o teu pai. So, without the “não”? Does the sentence change it’s meaning or is it not possible?
The sentence “Há muito tempo que vejo o teu pai” with the omission of “não” would indeed change the meaning. It would translate to “I have been seeing your father for a long time”, implying that you regularly see their father. The use of “não” in the original sentence “Há muito tempo que não vejo o teu pai” is necessary to convey the meaning that it has been a long time since you last saw their father.
Mas é claro. Não sei por que não percebi isso. Provavelmente é devido ao uso daquele verbo especial HAVER. Obrigado Relógio.
As a native English speaker, I blame the Latin languages for what I believe is a transfering of the “ha” to the English misuse of “there’s” when people SHOULD use “there are” e.g There’s a lot of ways” when they should say,”There ARE a lot of ways”. I believe that this is because it has come from the common use of “ha” for both, singular and plural, uses in Spanish and Portuguese. I haven’t checked Italian.
Ha-ha (no pun intended, Kevin), I don’t think we can blame lazy grammar on Latin. =-Q
Hi. Lesson 5 of this unit is about há coming before the denominator of time and indicating a past action, I get that and I hear it used. But in the examples some of the verbs are in the past tense – Não comia algo tão bom – and some are in the present – Não falo com os meus primos. Are both correct? Are there ways to differentiate between the two usages?
Olá! Great question. Generally speaking and in short, the simple present suggests that the situation you’re describing is still current, the imperfect past suggests that you’re talking about a previously ongoing situation which has changed in the meantime, and the simple past is used for non-continuous past events. Let’s match this to the examples you mentioned (plus an extra one):
– Não falo com os meus primos há muito tempo (simple present) -> To this moment, you probably still haven’t spoken to them since the last time.
– Há séculos que não comia algo tão bom (imperfect past) -> In the past, you spent a long time without eating something so great, but this has already happened again in the meantime and you’re discussing that renewed experience.
– Comprei este casaco há dez anos (simple past – bonus example) -> You buying this jacket was a one-off thing that happened at a well-defined point in the past (non-continuous past event), and you’re referring to that one moment.