Ter is the Brazilian Portuguese verb for "to have," and it is one of the first verbs you truly need. It covers ownership, of course — eu tenho um carro — but its reach goes much further than English "have." Brazilians use ter to talk about their age, their hunger and cold, their fears, and their obligations. Wherever English reaches for "to be" (be hungry, be afraid, be right), Portuguese very often reaches for ter instead. Learning ter well means learning a cluster of fixed expressions, not just one verb.
The present-tense forms
Ter is irregular and worth memorizing as a block:
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | tenho |
| você / ele / ela | tem |
| a gente | tem |
| nós | temos |
| vocês / eles / elas | têm |
Note the accents: third-person singular tem has no accent, but third-person plural têm takes a circumflex precisely to distinguish "he/she has" from "they have" in writing. They sound nearly identical in speech, so the written accent does the disambiguating work.
1. Owning and having things
The core meaning: possessing objects, people (relationships), and abstract things.
Eu tenho um carro velho, mas ele nunca quebra.
I have an old car, but it never breaks down.
Ela tem dois filhos: um menino e uma menina.
She has two kids: a boy and a girl.
A gente não tem tempo pra isso agora.
We don't have time for that right now.
That last example shows a gente ("we", informal) taking the singular tem — a quirk drilled on its own page, but worth flagging here: a gente is grammatically third-person singular even though it means "we."
2. Age — ter, never ser
To say how old someone is, Portuguese uses ter + number + anos. English uses "be" ("I am thirty"), so this is a classic transfer trap.
Tenho trinta anos e meu irmão tem vinte e cinco.
I'm thirty and my brother is twenty-five.
Quantos anos você tem?
How old are you? (literally: how many years do you have?)
You literally have years in Portuguese. Saying sou trinta anos is a guaranteed beginner giveaway.
3. Physical and emotional states
A whole family of states that English builds with "be" uses ter in Portuguese. These are best memorized as fixed collocations.
Estou com fome agora, mas mais cedo eu tinha muita fome.
I'm hungry now, but earlier I was really hungry.
As crianças têm medo de trovão.
The children are afraid of thunder.
Você tem razão, eu estava errado.
You're right, I was wrong.
Tenho saudade dos meus avós.
I miss my grandparents.
Here is the high-value list to drill as a set:
| Portuguese (with ter) | Literal | English uses "be" |
|---|---|---|
| ter fome | have hunger | be hungry |
| ter sede | have thirst | be thirsty |
| ter frio | have cold | be cold |
| ter calor | have heat | be hot |
| ter medo (de) | have fear | be afraid (of) |
| ter razão | have reason | be right |
| ter sono | have sleep | be sleepy |
| ter pressa | have haste | be in a hurry |
| ter saudade (de) | have longing | miss (someone) |
A note on register: in everyday speech, momentary states often appear as estar com + noun (estou com fome = "I'm hungry right now") rather than bare ter. Ter fome on its own can sound more general or habitual ("to experience hunger"). Both are correct; estar com is the more common conversational choice for "right now," while ter covers the general capacity and dominates with medo, razão, and saudade.
4. Obligation — ter que / ter de
Ter + que (or, more formally, ter de) + infinitive expresses obligation or necessity — the everyday "have to."
Tenho que sair agora, senão vou me atrasar.
I have to leave now, otherwise I'll be late.
Ela tem que terminar o relatório até sexta.
She has to finish the report by Friday.
In speech ter que is overwhelmingly more common than ter de; ter de is the slightly more formal/written variant. Both are correct.
How this differs from English and Spanish
English splits these jobs across "have" and "be": you have a car but you are hungry, afraid, and thirty. Portuguese keeps far more of them under "have." If you already know Spanish, good news — Spanish tener works almost identically (tengo hambre, tengo treinta años, tengo que salir), so you can transfer those patterns directly. The main vocabulary difference to watch is ter saudade, which has no clean Spanish or English single-word equivalent: it means to feel the bittersweet longing for someone or something absent.
Que saudade! Faz tempo que a gente não se vê.
I've missed you so much! It's been a while since we saw each other.
Common Mistakes
❌ Eu sou vinte anos.
Incorrect — age uses 'ter', not 'ser'.
✅ Eu tenho vinte anos.
I'm twenty years old.
❌ Estou faminto e sou com sede.
Incorrect — hunger and thirst are 'things you have/are with', not adjectives with 'ser'.
✅ Estou com fome e com sede.
I'm hungry and thirsty.
❌ Você é razão.
Incorrect — 'be right' is 'ter razão', not 'ser'.
✅ Você tem razão.
You're right.
❌ A gente têm que ir.
Incorrect — 'a gente' is grammatically singular, so it takes 'tem', not 'têm'.
✅ A gente tem que ir.
We have to go.
❌ Eu tenho muito saudades de você.
Incorrect — 'saudade' commonly stays singular here, and there's no 'muito' agreement issue if singular.
✅ Eu tenho muita saudade de você. / Tenho saudades de você.
I miss you so much.
Key Takeaways
- Ter covers ownership, age (tenho 30 anos), physical/emotional states (ter fome, medo, razão, saudade), and obligation (ter que sair).
- Many states English builds with "be" use ter (or estar com) in Portuguese — drill them as fixed collocations.
- A gente takes singular tem, not têm.
- Spanish tener transfers almost perfectly; ter saudade is the standout expression with no neat English equivalent.
Now practice Portuguese
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Ter and Haver: OverviewA1 — How Brazilian Portuguese splits possession, existence, and compound-tense duties between ter and haver — and why ter wins almost everywhere.
- Ter for 'There Is/Are' (Existential)A1 — How Brazilians use tem as the everyday 'there is/are', replacing formal há across all tenses.
- 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.
- Present Indicative of TerA1 — How to conjugate ter in Brazilian Portuguese for possession and age, the mandatory tem/têm accent, and the everyday existential 'tem' that replaces há.
- Ter que + Infinitivo / Dever + Infinitivo (Obligation)A2 — How Brazilian Portuguese expresses obligation and necessity — ter que, ter de, dever, and precisar plus an infinitive.
- 'A Gente' as Colloquial 'Nós'A1 — How a gente became the everyday word for we in Brazil — and why it takes a singular verb.