Há vs Existe vs Tem: There is/are | Portuguese (Brazil) Grammar

English says "there is" and "there are" — agreeing with the noun, but otherwise simple. Brazilian Portuguese has three different verbs for this idea, and choosing among them is mostly a question of register. The good news: the everyday spoken choice is also the easiest one grammatically. The catch: textbooks teach the formal form first, which is the opposite of what you will actually hear on the street. This page sorts out tem, há, and existe(m) so you sound natural in speech and correct in writing.

The core distinction

tem — the everyday spoken existential. Invariable (always tem, never agrees). This is what Brazilians actually say.
há — the formal / written existential (from haver). Also invariable.
existe / existem — "there exists / exist". Agrees with the noun. Slightly more emphatic; common in both speech and writing.

Tem leite na geladeira?

Is there milk in the fridge?

Há indícios de que o projeto será aprovado.

There are signs that the project will be approved.

Existem muitas formas de resolver isso.

There are many ways to solve this.

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For "there is/are", default to tem when speaking, há when writing formally, and existe(m) when you want to stress that something genuinely exists or is available — and remember that only existe(m) changes for plural.

Tem — the spoken existential (invariable)

In everyday Brazilian Portuguese, tem is overwhelmingly the most common way to say "there is/are". It is the impersonal use of ter ("to have"), and the key fact for English speakers is that it never changes for number: it is tem whether one thing or many things exist.

Tem um cachorro na frente da loja.

There's a dog in front of the store.

Tem dois ônibus que vão pro centro.

There are two buses that go downtown.

Tem alguém aí?

Is anyone there?

Não tem nada na geladeira.

There's nothing in the fridge.

Because tem is invariable, English speakers must resist the urge to "make it plural". There is no têm in this existential sense — that form (têm, with the circumflex) belongs only to the literal "they have" meaning with a plural subject. Existential tem stays singular forever.

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Existential tem is always singular and unaccented. The accented têm means "they have" (literal possession with a plural subject) and never appears in "there is/are" sentences.

This tem is fully standard in spoken Brazilian Portuguese and in informal writing (texts, social media, dialogue). In formal writing, however, editors will replace it with há.

Há — the formal existential (invariable)

Há is the third-person form of haver and is the existential of formal and written Portuguese: news, essays, official documents, and careful speech. Like tem, it is invariable — it does not agree with its complement:

Há pessoas que nunca desistem.

There are people who never give up.

Não há motivo para preocupação.

There's no reason to worry.

Havia muitos carros na estrada.

There were a lot of cars on the road.

That last example shows the past: existential haver in the imperfect is havia ("there was/were"), and in the preterite houve ("there was/were", for events). Both stay singular regardless of the noun.

Existe / existem — "there exists/exist" (agrees!)

Existir is the one existential that agrees with the noun, exactly as English "there is" vs "there are" does. Use existe with a singular noun and existem with a plural noun. It carries a slightly stronger sense of genuine existence or availability, which is why it is common when stating facts or possibilities:

Existe uma solução simples para isso.

There's a simple solution to this.

Existem vários restaurantes bons no bairro.

There are several good restaurants in the neighborhood.

Será que existe vida em outros planetas?

I wonder whether there's life on other planets.

Because existir agrees, it is the "safe" choice for learners who find invariable há/tem counterintuitive: it behaves just like the English pattern. The trade-off is a slightly more emphatic, sometimes more abstract tone — existem problemas highlights the existence of problems more than the casual tem problema.

Há / faz for elapsed time — "ago" and "for"

Here is a use that surprises English speakers: há also marks elapsed time, meaning "ago" or "for" (a period up to now). In this role, há is formal/written; in speech, Brazilians usually say faz (from fazer) instead.

Ele mora aqui há dois anos.

He's been living here for two years.

Cheguei há pouco.

I arrived a little while ago.

Faz três meses que não vejo a Ana.

It's been three months since I last saw Ana.

Note the spelling: time-related há carries an accent and is the verb. Do not confuse it with the preposition a (no accent), which points to future distance ("daqui a dois anos" = "two years from now"). A handy memory aid: há = past (already accumulated time), a = future (time still to come).

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Há dois anos = "two years ago / for two years" (past). Daqui a dois anos = "two years from now" (future). The accented há always looks backward; the bare a looks forward.

Decision summary

Situation	Use	Agrees?	Example
everyday speech / informal text	tem	no	tem dois carros
formal / written existential	há (havia / houve)	no	há dois carros
stating existence / availability	existe / existem	yes	existem dois carros
elapsed time, formal	há	—	há dois anos
elapsed time, spoken	faz	—	faz dois anos

Common Mistakes

❌ Têm dois carros na garagem.

Incorrect — existential 'tem' is invariable and unaccented.

✅ Tem dois carros na garagem.

There are two cars in the garage.

❌ Hão muitos problemas.

Incorrect — existential 'há' never pluralizes.

✅ Há muitos problemas.

There are many problems.

❌ Existe muitas razões para isso.

Incorrect — existir must agree: plural noun needs 'existem'.

✅ Existem muitas razões para isso.

There are many reasons for this.

❌ Moro aqui a dois anos.

Incorrect — elapsed past time needs accented 'há', not 'a'.

✅ Moro aqui há dois anos.

I've lived here for two years.

❌ Tem você um minuto?

Incorrect — existential 'tem' isn't used for 'do you have'; use literal ter.

✅ Você tem um minuto?

Do you have a minute?

Key Takeaways

tem = spoken "there is/are", invariable, unaccented — what you'll actually hear in Brazil.
há = formal/written "there is/are", invariable; past forms havia / houve.
existe / existem = "there exists/exist" and is the only one that agrees with the noun.
há also means "ago / for" (past time); speech prefers faz, and accented há (past) contrasts with bare a (future).

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