Haver is one of those verbs where the most useful thing you can learn is what not to study. In old grammar it had a full conjugation across all six persons (hei, hás, há, havemos, haveis, hão), and textbooks still print the whole paradigm. But in modern Brazilian Portuguese, haver is highly irregular and almost entirely defective: the personal forms are dead, and the verb survives only as a fistful of fixed, third-person expressions. This page shows you the real haver — the forms you will actually meet and need — and is honest about everything else being archaic.
The forms that are actually alive
Modern BR haver lives in five third-person forms. Everything else you can safely ignore for production.
| Form | Tense / mood | Meaning in use |
|---|---|---|
| há | presente | there is / there are; also "ago / for" (time) |
| havia | pretérito imperfeito | there was / there were (ongoing past) |
| houve | pretérito perfeito | there was / there were (a one-off event) |
| haja | presente subjuntivo | (that) there be |
| houver | futuro subjuntivo | (when/if) there is / there are |
1. Existential "há" — there is / there are (INVARIABLE)
The headline use. Há means "there is" and "there are" — it never changes for number. This is the crux of its irregularity for English speakers: even with a plural object, you keep the singular há.
Há uma farmácia logo ali na esquina.
There's a pharmacy right there on the corner. (formal/written)
Há muitos turistas no Rio em janeiro.
There are lots of tourists in Rio in January. (formal/written — note: still 'há', not a plural)
In speech, Brazilians overwhelmingly prefer tem: Tem uma farmácia ali, Tem muitos turistas. Treat há as the formal/written register and tem as the conversational one — both are correct.
2. "Há" for elapsed time — ago / for
The same há expresses how long ago something happened or how long a situation has lasted. Here it lines up with English "ago" or "for."
Moro no Brasil há três anos.
I've been living in Brazil for three years.
A gente se conheceu há muito tempo, lá no colégio.
We met a long time ago, back in school.
3. "Havia" — there was/were (ongoing past)
The imperfect for describing a past backdrop or ongoing state. Like há, it stays singular regardless of number. Spoken BR again prefers tinha.
Havia muita gente na rua quando o desfile passou.
There were a lot of people in the street when the parade went by. (formal)
4. "Houve" — there was/were (a single event)
The preterite, for a completed one-off occurrence — an accident, a change, an incident. This is the form you most often see surviving even in fairly casual writing and news.
Houve um acidente na rodovia, por isso o trânsito está parado.
There was an accident on the highway, that's why traffic is stopped.
Houve mudanças na diretoria da empresa neste ano.
There were changes in the company's board this year.
5. "Haja" and "houver" — the subjunctives
Haja is the present subjunctive ("that there be"), used after expressions of doubt, hope, or necessity. Houver is the future subjunctive ("when/if there is"), used after quando, se, enquanto pointing at the future.
Espero que não haja problema em remarcar pra sexta.
I hope there's no problem moving it to Friday.
Quando houver uma vaga, eu te aviso na hora.
When there's an opening, I'll let you know right away.
Haver as a compound auxiliary (formal/literary)
In formal and literary writing, haver can be the auxiliary in compound tenses, where modern BR overwhelmingly uses ter: havia falado = tinha falado ("had spoken"). You should recognize this but not adopt it — it sounds elevated or dated in speech.
O documento que eles haviam assinado já não tinha validade.
The document they had signed was no longer valid. (formal/literary)
The set phrase haver de + infinitive expresses determination or a solemn future ("I shall / I'm bound to"). It is literary or emphatic, and survives in fixed sayings.
Um dia eu hei de voltar pra minha cidade.
One day I shall return to my hometown. (literary/emphatic — 'hei de')
What is archaic: the full personal paradigm
For completeness, here is the full present-tense paradigm — but understand that everything except há is archaic in modern BR existential use, surviving only in the frozen hei de / hás de construction above.
| Pronoun | Presente (archaic except 'há') |
|---|---|
| eu | hei (archaic; alive only in "hei de") |
| tu / você | hás / há (archaic) |
| ele / ela | há (alive — existential) |
| nós | havemos (archaic) |
| vocês | hão (archaic) |
| eles / elas | hão (archaic) |
The other tenses behave like a regular -er verb on the stem hav- (haveria, houvesse, etc.), but as an existential/auxiliary verb you will only ever need the third-person forms in the first table. The non-finite forms exist too — gerúndio havendo, particípio havido — but are rare.
| Form | Conjugation |
|---|---|
| Infinitivo | haver |
| Gerúndio | havendo |
| Particípio | havido |
| Futuro do subjuntivo (existential) | houver |
| Imperfeito do subjuntivo (existential) | houvesse |
Why is haver so broken?
Latin habēre ("to have, to hold") was the everyday verb for possession — it gave Portuguese haver. But over the centuries, Portuguese handed the "possession" job to ter (from Latin tenēre, "to hold tight"), leaving haver stranded with only its grammatical jobs: marking existence ("there is") and serving as a compound auxiliary. Brazilian Portuguese pushed this further than European Portuguese, letting ter take over even the existential role in speech. So haver did not so much break as get out-competed — it was demoted from a full lexical verb to a handful of formal, mostly third-person survivors. Spanish kept its cognate haber as the only compound auxiliary (he hablado), while Portuguese went the opposite way with ter — a major Spanish-to-Portuguese trap.
Não há nada que eu possa fazer agora; amanhã a gente resolve.
There's nothing I can do right now; we'll sort it out tomorrow. (formal register)
Common Mistakes
❌ Hão muitos carros na rua.
Incorrect — existential haver is invariable: always 'há', even with plurals.
✅ Há muitos carros na rua.
There are a lot of cars on the street.
❌ Moro aqui a três anos.
Incorrect — 'time elapsed' uses 'há', not the preposition 'a': há três anos.
✅ Moro aqui há três anos.
I've lived here for three years.
❌ Houveram vários problemas no projeto.
Incorrect — 'houve' never pluralizes; this very common native error is still nonstandard.
✅ Houve vários problemas no projeto.
There were several problems with the project.
❌ Eu hei um carro novo.
Incorrect — haver no longer means 'to possess'; use 'ter': Eu tenho um carro novo.
✅ Eu tenho um carro novo.
I have a new car.
Key Takeaways
- In modern BR, haver is highly irregular and mostly defective — learn the five live forms, ignore the dead paradigm.
- Há = "there is / there are" and is invariable (singular even with plurals). Spoken BR prefers tem.
- Há also marks elapsed time: há três anos = "three years ago / for three years." Don't confuse it with the preposition a (future time).
- Havia (ongoing past), houve (one-off past event), haja (pres. subjunctive), houver (fut. subjunctive) round out the working set — and houve never pluralizes.
- The full personal forms (hei, havemos, hão) are archaic, alive only in the literary hei de construction.
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Haver for Formal Existence and TimeA2 — How há, havia, and houve express formal existence, elapsed time, and 'ago' — including the two opposite temporal meanings of há.
- Ter and Haver: OverviewA1 — How Brazilian Portuguese splits possession, existence, and compound-tense duties between ter and haver — and why ter wins almost everywhere.
- Houve for Past Events ('There Was')B1 — How 'houve' expresses past existence and events — and why most Brazilians say 'teve' or 'aconteceu' instead in everyday speech.
- TerA1 — How to conjugate and use ter (to have) in Brazilian Portuguese — the highly irregular verb for possession, the everyday existential 'there is/are', age, physical states, and the universal compound auxiliary.
- Defective Verb ListB2 — A catalog of Brazilian Portuguese defective verbs — verbs with missing forms — and the workarounds native speakers use to avoid the gaps.