Há (There Is/Are) in Portuguese

Há Existencial

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In Brief

Use há for both “there is” and “there are”: Há um problema and Há muitos problemas. It never becomes plural in this existential use. Há also introduces an amount of past time: Cheguei há uma hora (“I arrived an hour ago”) and Moro aqui há dois anos (“I have lived here for two years”).

Overview

Portuguese há is a form of the verb haver. In the construction taught here, it says that someone or something exists, is present, or is available. English divides this job between “there is” and “there are,” but Portuguese uses the same form regardless of what follows: Há uma cadeira and Há dez cadeiras.

This is an impersonal construction (a construction with no grammatical subject performing the action). The noun after há tells you what exists, but it does not make the verb singular or plural. That point matters because English encourages learners to match “is” or “are” to the following noun.

At A1, the essential rules are simple: use há, keep it singular, and put não before it to make a negative. The same word is also extremely common in time expressions. Later, you can extend the pattern to other tenses of haver and learn how usage differs between Portugal and Brazil.

How It Works

Existence and availability

The basic pattern is há + noun phrase. A noun phrase is simply a noun together with words that belong to it, such as an article, number, or adjective.

Meaning	Pattern	Example
One thing exists	Há + singular noun phrase	Há uma mensagem para ti.
Several things exist	Há + plural noun phrase	Há três mensagens para ti.
Something does not exist or is unavailable	Não há + noun phrase	Não há café.
Ask whether something exists	Há + noun phrase + ?	Há um multibanco perto daqui?

Há is invariable in this use: it does not change according to the number of people or things mentioned.

Há um aluno na sala. — There is one student in the room.
Há vinte alunos na sala. — There are twenty students in the room.

The expressions after há often include quantities: muito trabalho (a lot of work), poucas opções (few options), várias lojas (several shops), or ninguém (nobody).

Making negatives

Place não immediately before há:

Há pão. — There is bread.
Não há pão. — There is no bread. / There isn’t any bread.
Não há ninguém em casa. — There is nobody at home.

English can use either “there is no…” or “there isn’t any…”. Portuguese normally needs no equivalent of “any” in a simple sentence such as Não há leite.

Asking questions

Portuguese does not need an extra verb like English “do.” In writing, the question mark and context show that the sentence is a question; in speech, the voice normally rises:

Há casas de banho aqui? — Are there restrooms here?
Quantas pessoas há na fila? — How many people are there in the line?
O que há no saco? — What is in the bag?

In quantas pessoas há, quantas agrees with pessoas, but há remains unchanged.

Time: “ago” and “for”

Há + amount of time places something in a period extending back from now. English chooses different wording depending on the rest of the sentence.

Situation	Portuguese pattern	Natural English meaning
Completed past event	past-tense verb + há + duration	duration + ago
Situation still continuing	present-tense verb + há + duration	for + duration

Compare:

Cheguei há duas horas. — I arrived two hours ago. The arrival is complete.
Estou aqui há duas horas. — I have been here for two hours. The situation continues now.
Conheço a Ana há muito tempo. — I have known Ana for a long time.

This is an important difference from English. Portuguese often uses the present tense for something that began in the past and is still true, while English commonly uses the present perfect (“have lived,” “have known”).

Spelling: há, a, and ah

These three forms sound alike in many varieties but have different jobs.

Form	Job	Example
há	existence or past time	Há uma reunião. / Cheguei há pouco.
a	preposition; also future time in some expressions	Daqui a uma hora.
ah	interjection showing reaction	Ah, agora entendo!

The accent in há is required. For time, a useful memory aid is: há looks backward, while daqui a looks forward.

Saí há uma hora. — I left an hour ago.
Saio daqui a uma hora. — I leave in an hour.

Examples in Context

Portuguese	English	Note
Há um problema.	There is a problem.	Singular existence
Há muitas pessoas na praça.	There are many people in the square.	Há stays singular
Não há leite no frigorífico.	There is no milk in the refrigerator.	Negative
Há uma farmácia aberta por aqui?	Is there an open pharmacy around here?	Yes/no question
Quantos quartos há no apartamento?	How many rooms are there in the apartment?	Quantity question
Hoje há menos trânsito.	There is less traffic today.	Comparison of quantity
Há alguém à porta.	There is someone at the door.	Indefinite person
Não há ninguém no escritório.	There is nobody in the office.	Negative person expression
O que há para jantar?	What is there for dinner?	Availability
Conhecemo-nos há dez anos.	We have known each other for ten years.	Continuing situation
Vivo aqui há dois anos.	I have lived here for two years.	Present in Portuguese
Ela telefonou há cinco minutos.	She called five minutes ago.	Completed past event
Não chove há semanas.	It hasn’t rained for weeks.	A situation continuing until now
Há dias em que preciso de silêncio.	There are days when I need silence.	General statement

Common Mistakes

Making existential haver plural

Wrong: Hão muitas pessoas na estação.
Right: Há muitas pessoas na estação.
Why: Existential há is impersonal. The plural noun pessoas does not control the verb form.

Copying English “is/are” with ser or estar

Wrong: Estão dois cafés nesta rua. (if you mean “There are two cafés on this street.”)
Right: Há dois cafés nesta rua.
Why: Use há to introduce the existence or availability of something. Use estar to locate a specific, already identified thing: Os dois cafés estão nesta rua (“The two cafés are on this street”).

Forgetting the accent

Wrong: Ha um erro no documento.
Right: Há um erro no documento.
Why: The present form of haver is spelled há. The accent is part of the word, not optional emphasis.

Using há for future time

Wrong: A reunião começa há meia hora. (intended: in half an hour)
Right: A reunião começa daqui a meia hora.
Why: Há measures backward from now. Daqui a measures forward from now.

Translating English tense word for word

Awkward/incorrect for the intended continuing meaning: Vivi aqui há dois anos.
Right: Vivo aqui há dois anos.
Why: Vivo says that living here continues now. Vivi normally presents it as a completed past period and may suggest that you no longer live here.

Adding atrás unnecessarily

Less careful: Cheguei há duas horas atrás.
Preferred: Cheguei há duas horas.
Why: Both há and atrás already point backward in time. The longer version is common in conversation, especially in Brazil, but many editors and teachers treat it as redundant.

Usage Notes

Há versus tem in Brazil

In European Portuguese, há is the normal everyday choice for existence: Há muita gente aqui. In Brazilian Portuguese, speakers very often use impersonal tem in informal conversation: Tem muita gente aqui. This colloquial tem means “there is/are,” not possession.

Both varieties understand há. In Brazil, it is especially safe in careful writing and formal speech, though it can sound more formal than tem in casual conversation. As a learner, mastering há gives you a standard form that works across Portuguese-speaking regions; learn to recognize existential tem as a major Brazilian pattern.

Há versus existe/existem

Existir also means “to exist,” but unlike impersonal haver, it has a grammatical subject and agrees with it:

Há uma solução. / Existe uma solução.
Há várias soluções. / Existem várias soluções.

The versions with existir can place more emphasis on actual existence. Há is usually the neutral choice for saying what is present or available.

Fixed expressions

Several frequent expressions are worth learning as complete units:

há pouco — a short time ago: Ele saiu há pouco.
há muito tempo — a long time ago / for a long time, depending on the verb
há anos — years ago / for years
não há problema — no problem
não há dúvida — there is no doubt
o que há? — what is it? / what’s wrong? / what is there?, according to context

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master this section at A1, but the same impersonal rule applies when existential haver appears in other tenses. The verb changes for time, not for the number of things that exist.

Time or meaning	Singular impersonal form	Example
Imperfect past, “there was/were”	havia	Havia muitas pessoas na sala.
Completed past, “there was/were”	houve	Houve vários atrasos.
Future, “there will be”	haverá	Haverá novas oportunidades.
Conditional, “there would be”	haveria	Haveria menos problemas com mais tempo.
Repeated/recent existence	tem havido	Tem havido muitas mudanças.

Standard Portuguese therefore uses havia problemas, not haviam problemas, and houve acidentes, not houveram acidentes. In the compound form, use tem havido, not têm havido, because existential haver remains impersonal.

Do not confuse this with haver as an auxiliary verb (a helping verb used to build another verb form), which is mainly literary or formal today. In Eles haviam chegado, “They had arrived,” haviam agrees with the subject eles. That is a different construction from existential Havia três pessoas.

Time expressions can also refer back from a past viewpoint with havia: Quando nos encontrámos, eu vivia em Lisboa havia três anos means that, at the time we met, I had been living in Lisbon for three years. In everyday language, speakers may choose other ways to express this relationship, but the pattern explains why forms other than present há sometimes occur with durations.

Finally, há que + infinitive means roughly “it is necessary to” or “one must,” especially in European Portuguese and in a more formal register: Há que ter paciência (“One must be patient”). This is impersonal too, but it expresses necessity rather than existence and belongs to a later stage of study.

Practice Tips

Scan your surroundings. Make five sentences beginning with Há and two with Não há: Há uma janela; não há televisão. Include singular, plural, and uncountable nouns so the unchanged form becomes automatic.
Build time pairs. Match one completed event with one continuing situation: Cheguei há seis meses and Moro aqui há seis meses. Say why English uses “ago” in one and “for” in the other.
Train the timeline contrast. Write pairs with há and daqui a: O autocarro chegou há dez minutos versus O próximo chega daqui a dez minutos.

Related Concepts

Prerequisite: Ter (To Have) — compare personal ter for possession with impersonal há for existence, and recognize colloquial Brazilian existential tem.
Next step: Impersonal Constructions — place existential haver within the wider Portuguese system of sentences without a personal subject.