This page is about one tiny mark — a circumflex (^) — that carries a lot of weight. In writing, tem means "he/she has" and têm means "they have." The only visible difference is the little hat over the e. The same mark separates vem ("he/she comes") from vêm ("they come"). This circumflex is mandatory in writing, and it is one of the most frequently dropped accents by learners and native speakers alike. Get it right and your written Portuguese instantly looks more polished.
The two verbs that need it
There are really only two verbs where this matters: ter (to have) and vir (to come). In both, the third-person singular and the third-person plural would look identical if not for the circumflex on the plural.
| Verb | Singular (ele/ela) | Plural (eles/elas) |
|---|---|---|
| ter (to have) | tem | têm |
| vir (to come) | vem | vêm |
Ele tem dois irmãos.
He has two siblings.
Eles têm dois irmãos.
They have two siblings.
Ela vem de carro.
She comes by car.
Elas vêm de carro.
They come by car.
The pronunciation differs slightly too — the plural is a touch longer and more nasal — but the gap is small enough that in casual speech context usually does the disambiguating. In writing, the circumflex is the only thing that tells the reader whether one person or several is involved. That is why it is not optional.
It applies to compound subjects too
The circumflex tracks the meaning (plural subject), not just the literal pronoun eles. Any plural subject triggers têm / vêm.
Meus pais têm uma casa na praia.
My parents have a beach house.
As crianças vêm correndo pelo corredor.
The children come running down the hall.
Maria e João têm a mesma idade.
Maria and João are the same age. (lit. have the same age)
In each case the subject is plural — meus pais, as crianças, Maria e João — so the verb takes the hat.
Compound verbs of ter and vir keep the pattern
Verbs built on ter and vir inherit the same singular/plural circumflex, but with a twist: in these longer verbs, the singular takes an acute accent and the plural takes a circumflex. The most common ones are manter (to maintain), conter (to contain), obter (to obtain), deter (to detain), convir (to be fitting), and intervir (to intervene).
| Verb | Singular (ele/ela) | Plural (eles/elas) |
|---|---|---|
| manter | mantém | mantêm |
| conter | contém | contêm |
| obter | obtém | obtêm |
| convir | convém | convêm |
Este produto contém glúten.
This product contains gluten.
Estes produtos contêm glúten.
These products contain gluten.
So the full system is: simple verbs tem/têm, vem/vêm (no accent → circumflex), and compound verbs mantém/mantêm, contém/contêm (acute → circumflex). The singular always has the lighter mark (none or acute); the plural always upgrades to the circumflex.
Why this circumflex survived AO90
This is where it gets genuinely interesting, and where you learn something even most Brazilians cannot explain. The 1990 Orthographic Agreement (Acordo Ortográfico, AO90) removed circumflexes from several other verb plurals. Verbs like ver, ler, and crer used to write their plurals with a circumflex (vêem, lêem, crêem) and now write them without one:
| Verb | Singular | Plural (post-AO90) | Old plural (pre-AO90) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ver (to see) | vê | veem | vêem |
| ler (to read) | lê | leem | lêem |
| crer (to believe) | crê | creem | crêem |
So why did têm and vêm keep their hats while veem, leem, and creem lost theirs? The answer is disambiguation, and it hinges on the singular form.
- For ver, the singular is vê (with an accent already). The plural veem is visibly different — two e's instead of one accented one — so no extra circumflex is needed to tell them apart. The accent could safely be dropped.
- For ter, the singular is tem — a one-syllable form with no accent. Without a circumflex, the plural would be spelled identically to the singular. The circumflex is the only way to distinguish tem from têm in writing, so it had to stay.
Ele vê televisão demais.
He watches too much TV.
Eles veem televisão demais.
They watch too much TV. (no circumflex post-AO90)
Note that pattern carefully: veem has no hat, but têm does. Mixing these up — writing vêem or tem for the plural — is the classic post-AO90 error.
Comparison with English
English has no equivalent problem because its present tense barely inflects: "they have" and "she has" are different words, and "they come" / "she comes" differ by the -s ending on the singular. Portuguese instead marks the plural with an extra symbol. English speakers, used to ignoring accents entirely, tend to treat the circumflex as decorative — but in têm and vêm it does exactly the grammatical work that English does with word endings. Skipping it is like writing "she have" in English: understandable, but visibly wrong.
Common Mistakes
❌ Meus pais tem uma casa na praia.
Incorrect — plural subject 'meus pais' needs the circumflex: têm.
✅ Meus pais têm uma casa na praia.
My parents have a beach house.
❌ Eles vêem para o jantar hoje.
Incorrect — 'vir' (come) plural is 'vêm' with one e; 'vêem' looks like the (wrong) old spelling of 'ver'.
✅ Eles vêm para o jantar hoje.
They're coming to dinner today.
❌ Eles vêem o problema com clareza.
Marginal/outdated — post-AO90, the plural of 'ver' has no circumflex: veem.
✅ Eles veem o problema com clareza.
They see the problem clearly.
❌ Estes pacotes contém açúcar.
Incorrect — plural subject needs the circumflex on the compound verb: contêm.
✅ Estes pacotes contêm açúcar.
These packages contain sugar.
❌ Ela têm muito trabalho.
Incorrect — singular subject 'ela' takes 'tem' with no circumflex.
✅ Ela tem muito trabalho.
She has a lot of work.
Key Takeaways
- tem/têm (ter) and vem/vêm (vir): singular has no hat, plural takes a circumflex. The circumflex is mandatory in writing.
- Any plural subject — not just eles — triggers the circumflex.
- Compound verbs follow the same logic with acute → circumflex: mantém/mantêm, contém/contêm.
- The circumflex survived AO90 here precisely because the singular (tem, vem) would otherwise be spelled identically to the plural.
- Contrast with veem, leem, creem (ver, ler, crer), which lost their circumflex because their singular vê, lê, crê already differs from the plural.
Now practice Portuguese
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Ter for PossessionA1 — How ter works as Brazilian Portuguese's everyday 'have' — for owning things, age, physical states, and obligation.
- Ter as Compound AuxiliaryA2 — How 'ter' serves as the universal helper verb for every compound tense in Brazilian Portuguese — with an invariable participle.
- Ter and Haver: OverviewA1 — How Brazilian Portuguese splits possession, existence, and compound-tense duties between ter and haver — and why ter wins almost everywhere.
- 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.
- VirA1 — How to conjugate and use vir (to come) in Brazilian Portuguese — one of the most irregular verbs — including venho/vem/vêm, the preterite veio, and the many homographs it shares with ver (vimos, vir, vindo).