Expressing 'There Is/There Are' (Há, Existe, Tem) | Portuguese (Portugal) Grammar

English has one all-purpose construction for existence — there is, there are — and adjusts the verb for number. Portuguese does the same job with three different verbs: haver, existir, and (colloquially, mostly in Brazil) ter. They are not interchangeable. Each carries its own register, its own formality, its own slight shade of meaning. Getting the choice right is one of the first things that separates a learner who sounds natural from one who sounds like they are translating word by word. In European Portuguese, the default for almost every context is há — short, invariable, and at the centre of the language's way of talking about what exists.

The quick answer

Use há for almost everything: general existence, weather, time elapsed, availability of things, descriptions of places. It is invariable — it does not change for singular or plural. Use existir/existem when you want a slightly more formal, reflective tone, or when you mean exist in a genuine philosophical sense. Avoid ter as an existential in European Portuguese — it is standard in Brazil but marked as Brazilian or very casual in Portugal.

Há uma farmácia na próxima rua.

There's a pharmacy on the next street.

Há muitos turistas em Lisboa no verão.

There are a lot of tourists in Lisbon in summer.

Existem razões para ter cuidado.

There are reasons to be careful. (slightly more formal)

Há — the workhorse

Há is the third-person singular of haver in the present indicative. When used to express existence, it is frozen — it never becomes hão in the plural. This is the single most important thing to remember about it, because it goes against the instinct an English speaker carries over from there is / there are.

Há um gato no sofá.

There's a cat on the sofa.

Há três gatos no sofá.

There are three cats on the sofa.

Há pessoas à porta.

There are people at the door.

Notice that há stays há regardless of whether one gato or three are involved. Portuguese treats existential haver as an impersonal verb — a verb with no grammatical subject — and impersonal verbs are always singular by default.

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Never conjugate existential há for number. Há muitas pessoas, never hão muitas pessoas. The urge to pluralize is the single most common English-speaker mistake with this construction.

Past, future, and other tenses of há

Because haver is a full verb, há has forms in every tense. The existential meaning carries through each of them, and they all stay singular.

Tense	Form	Example	Translation
Present	há	Há muito trânsito.	There's a lot of traffic.
Imperfect	havia	Havia muita gente na festa.	There were lots of people at the party.
Preterite	houve	Houve um acidente ontem.	There was an accident yesterday.
Future	haverá	Haverá uma reunião amanhã.	There will be a meeting tomorrow.
Conditional	haveria	Haveria outra solução?	Would there be another solution?
Present subjunctive	haja	Talvez haja mais pão.	Maybe there's more bread.

Houve uma greve dos comboios na semana passada.

There was a train strike last week.

Havia pouca comida e muita fome.

There was little food and a lot of hunger.

Espero que haja tempo para tudo.

I hope there'll be time for everything.

Há for elapsed time

One of the most common uses of há in European Portuguese has nothing to do with "there is." It means ago or for in expressions of elapsed time. English splits these ideas into two different prepositions; Portuguese handles both with há.

Cheguei a Lisboa há três dias.

I arrived in Lisbon three days ago.

Moro aqui há cinco anos.

I've been living here for five years.

Há muito tempo que não vejo a Ana.

I haven't seen Ana for a long time.

This is not a different verb — it is the same existential há, treating the span of time as something that exists between a past moment and now. The pattern is so frequent that you will hear it constantly.

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Do not confuse elapsed-time há with the preposition a. Há três dias (three days ago) has an h, written but silent. Learners often drop it because they cannot hear it, but in writing it is obligatory.

Há in weather expressions

European Portuguese uses há to introduce weather conditions that you perceive as being out there in the environment. This is not the only way to talk about weather — estar and fazer are also used — but há is the idiom of choice for several common conditions.

Há sol lá fora.

It's sunny outside.

Há nevoeiro no Porto hoje.

It's foggy in Porto today.

Há muito vento na praia.

It's very windy at the beach.

Compare with faz frio (it's cold) and está a chover (it's raining), which use different verbs. Each weather condition has its preferred verb, and há tends to be used with conditions that are describable as amounts of something — sun, fog, wind, humidity.

Existir / existem — the thoughtful choice

Existir is a regular -ir verb, and unlike haver it does agree in number with its subject. Use existe for a singular noun and existem for a plural one.

Existe uma forma melhor de fazer isto.

There is a better way to do this.

Existem várias soluções para este problema.

There are several solutions to this problem.

Já não existem florestas assim em Portugal.

Forests like that no longer exist in Portugal.

The difference between há and existir is mostly stylistic. Há is concrete, grounded, everyday — it points to things in the world. Existir is more abstract, more reflective. When you want to emphasise that something genuinely exists (as opposed to being merely imagined or hypothetical), existir is the natural choice.

Há um livro na mesa.

There's a book on the table. (I can see it.)

Existe uma teoria que explica isso.

There's a theory that explains that. (abstract existence)

When existir is clearly better than há

There are cases where existir feels right and há feels wrong:

Philosophical or abstract statements: Existe vida em Marte? (Is there life on Mars?)
Statements of universal existence: Não existem dois flocos de neve iguais. (No two snowflakes are alike.)
Formal writing, especially academic or legal prose.
Emphatic existential claims: Ele existe, eu juro! (He exists, I swear!)

Existem direitos fundamentais que não podem ser violados.

There are fundamental rights that cannot be violated. (formal)

Nunca existiu uma oportunidade tão boa.

There has never been such a good opportunity.

Register comparison

Register	Preferred verb	Example
(informal) everyday speech	há	Há pão na cozinha.
(neutral) written prose	há / existe	Há / existem várias opções.
(formal) academic, legal, scientific	existir	Existem critérios objetivos.
(literary) philosophical, reflective	existir	Existem coisas que as palavras não dizem.

Ter — a warning about Brazilian usage

In Brazilian Portuguese, the verb ter (to have) is the everyday existential — tem um gato no sofá is how a Brazilian would say there's a cat on the sofa. This usage is so deeply entrenched in Brazil that it sounds completely neutral there.

In European Portuguese, this is not standard. A Portuguese speaker in Portugal would hear tem um gato no sofá and understand it, but recognise it as Brazilian. It is fine to use in casual speech if you want to sound Brazilian, but:

It is inappropriate in formal writing — any teacher, editor, or employer in Portugal will correct it.
It sounds marked — not wrong, but identifiably non-Portuguese, like saying "ain't no" in a British business email.
It does not work in fixed expressions: tem sol (Brazilian for it's sunny) is replaced by há sol in PT-PT.

✅ Há pão na cozinha. (PT-PT neutral)

There's bread in the kitchen.

✅ Tem pão na cozinha. (BR neutral; PT-PT marked)

There's bread in the kitchen. (sounds Brazilian in Portugal)

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If you are learning European Portuguese, train yourself to reach for há and existe, not tem. It is one of the clearest dialect markers — natives will pick up on it immediately.

In European Portuguese, ter stays in its literal meaning: to have, to possess. Tem um gato means he/she has a cat, not there is a cat. The existential reading is simply not there for a PT-PT ear.

Existence vs. location: a subtle contrast

Existential sentences introduce something into the discourse for the first time — there is a cat on the sofa tells you a new thing, that a cat exists in a given place. When you already know about the cat and want to say where it is, you use a different structure entirely: the verb estar.

Há um gato no sofá.

There's a cat on the sofa. (new information — introducing the cat)

O gato está no sofá.

The cat is on the sofa. (known cat — locating it)

Portuguese, like most languages, uses há for presentational existence and estar for location. The choice tracks the definiteness of the noun: há with indefinite or bare nouns (um gato, gatos, muitos gatos), estar with definite ones (o gato, este gato, os gatos).

Há and the definite article

A natural corollary of the rule above: há almost never takes a definite article. If the noun is definite, you are locating something, not asserting its existence, and you should use estar.

✅ Há uma farmácia na esquina.

There's a pharmacy on the corner.

❌ Há a farmácia na esquina.

Unnatural — definite noun needs estar, not há.

✅ A farmácia está na esquina.

The pharmacy is on the corner.

The one exception is when há introduces a new, discourse-novel definite thing — for instance when pointing out something specific: Há o problema de que ninguém quer falar (There's the problem no one wants to talk about). This is a rare, rhetorical use.

Common Mistakes

❌ Hão muitas pessoas na praia.

Incorrect — existential há is invariable, never plural.

✅ Há muitas pessoas na praia.

There are lots of people at the beach.

❌ Tem um problema com o carro. (in Portugal, in writing)

Avoid in PT-PT — this sounds Brazilian or learner-level.

✅ Há um problema com o carro.

There's a problem with the car.

❌ A três dias que não durmo.

Incorrect — elapsed-time há is spelled with h, not as the preposition a.

✅ Há três dias que não durmo.

I haven't slept for three days.

❌ Existe muitas razões.

Incorrect — existir agrees with its subject; razões is plural, so the verb must be existem.

✅ Existem muitas razões.

There are many reasons.

❌ Há o gato no sofá.

Unnatural — existential há with a definite noun; use estar for a known referent.

✅ O gato está no sofá.

The cat is on the sofa.

Key Takeaways

Use há as your default for "there is / there are" in European Portuguese. It is invariable — it does not pluralize.
Haver has forms in every tense (havia, houve, haverá, haja); the existential meaning carries through.
Use existir / existem (which does agree in number) for formal, abstract, or emphatic existence.
Há
- time expression means ago or for: há três dias = three days ago / for three days.
Há is used for several weather conditions: há sol, há nevoeiro, há vento.
Avoid existential tem in European Portuguese — it is Brazilian and sounds marked in PT-PT.
Existential constructions use indefinite nouns; definite, known referents take estar instead.