Ter and Haver: Overview | Portuguese (Brazil) Grammar

Portuguese has two verbs that both translate, roughly, as "to have" — ter and haver — and between them they cover possession, existence ("there is/are"), and the building of compound tenses ("have done"). In Brazilian Portuguese the division of labor is lopsided: ter has taken over almost everything in everyday speech, while haver survives mainly in one frozen form, há, used for formal existence and time expressions. This page maps the whole territory so you know which verb does what — and the later pages drill each use in depth.

The big picture

Think of three jobs and two workers:

Job	Everyday Brazilian	Formal / written
Possession ("I have a book")	ter: tenho um livro	ter: tenho um livro
Existence ("there is / there are")	ter: tem gente na rua	haver: há gente na rua
Compound tense ("had spoken")	ter: tinha falado	haver: havia falado (literary)
Time elapsed / "ago"	tem (casual) / faz	haver: há três anos

The single most useful takeaway: in colloquial Brazilian Portuguese, ter does almost all of this. Haver is something you read, hear in news broadcasts, and write in formal documents, but rarely produce yourself in conversation — except for the time expression há, which even casual speakers use in writing.

Ter — the everyday workhorse

Ter means "to have/possess," and in Brazil it also serves as the casual "there is/are" and as the standard compound auxiliary.

Eu tenho dois irmãos e um cachorro.

I have two brothers and a dog.

Tem muita gente na fila do banco.

There are a lot of people in the bank line.

A gente tinha estudado tudo antes da prova.

We had studied everything before the test.

That second sentence is the giveaway feature of Brazilian Portuguese: tem for "there is/are." A Portuguese speaker from Portugal would default to há. We will drill this on its own page because it is so distinctive.

Haver — the formal specialist

Haver is irregular and, in modern Brazil, mostly defective: you almost only meet its third-person singular há and the past forms havia and houve. Its surviving jobs are formal existence, time elapsed, and "ago."

Há muitas pessoas interessadas na vaga.

There are many people interested in the position.

Moro no Rio há três anos.

I have been living in Rio for three years.

Houve um acidente na rodovia ontem.

There was an accident on the highway yesterday.

As an auxiliary, haver + participle (havia falado, "had spoken") is literary. You will encounter it in novels and formal prose, but in speech Brazilians say tinha falado.

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Don't try to conjugate haver fully as a beginner. In real Brazilian usage you almost only need three forms: há (present), havia (past state), and houve (past event). Everything else is covered by ter.

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Rule of thumb for production: when you mean "there is/are," say tem in conversation and há in formal writing. When you mean "ago" or "for [duration] up to now," use há even casually in writing. For compound tenses, always reach for ter unless you are deliberately writing in an elevated register.

A crucial difference from English

English uses three different words where Portuguese reuses these two verbs:

possession → "have" → ter
existence → "there is/are" → tem / há
perfect tense → "have done" → ter / haver
- participle

English keeps "there is" (with be) completely separate from "I have" (with have). Portuguese does not — tem and há both literally come from "have" verbs. So when you want to say "there is bread," resist translating "there is" with a be-type construction; you need an existential ter or haver, not é or está.

Tem pão na mesa.

There is bread on the table. (literally: 'has bread on the table')

❌ É pão na mesa.

Incorrect — English 'there is' is not 'é' in Portuguese.

Brazil vs. Portugal in one pair of sentences

The single clearest illustration of the BR/PT split is existence:

Tem ovo na geladeira? (Brazil)

Is there any egg in the fridge?

Há ovos no frigorífico? (Portugal)

Are there eggs in the fridge?

Same meaning, two different verbs (and, incidentally, two different words for "fridge": geladeira in Brazil, frigorífico in Portugal). A Brazilian who says há ovos na geladeira sounds bookish; a Portuguese speaker who says tem ovos sounds informal or Brazilian. Knowing this lets you place a speaker — and lets you sound natural rather than translated.

How the pieces connect

The remaining pages in this group break the territory down:

Ter for Possession — the everyday "have," plus the many states (ter fome, ter razão) where Portuguese uses ter but English uses be.
Ter for "There Is/Are" — the colloquial Brazilian existential tem and how it conjugates across tenses.
Haver for Formal Existence and Time — há, havia, houve, and the two opposite meanings of há in time expressions.

For the finer choice between competing existentials, see also the dedicated comparison of há vs. existe vs. tem.

Common Mistakes

❌ Está muitas pessoas aqui.

Incorrect — existence is not expressed with 'estar'; use 'tem' (casual) or 'há' (formal).

✅ Tem muitas pessoas aqui.

There are many people here.

❌ Eu hei um carro.

Incorrect — 'haver' does not mean personal possession; use 'ter'.

✅ Eu tenho um carro.

I have a car.

❌ Háve gente na rua.

Incorrect invented form — the existential form is simply 'há' (or casual 'tem').

✅ Há gente na rua. / Tem gente na rua.

There are people in the street.

❌ Eu havia um livro na mochila.

Incorrect — for 'there was a book' use existential 'havia' impersonally, not with a subject 'eu'.

✅ Havia um livro na mochila. / Tinha um livro na mochila.

There was a book in the backpack.

Key Takeaways

ter = everyday "have," and in Brazil also the casual "there is/are" (tem) and the standard compound auxiliary (tinha falado).
haver survives mostly as há (existence, "ago", duration), havia, and houve; as an auxiliary (havia falado) it is literary.
Existence in Portuguese uses a "have" verb, not a "be" verb — never é/está for "there is/are."
BR defaults to tem for existence; PT-PT keeps há. This is one of the most reliable markers of the two varieties.

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