Existir (To Exist) — Full Conjugation

Existir means to exist. It is a perfectly regular third-conjugation (-ir) verb, and alongside haver and ter it forms the small family of existential verbs — verbs that assert the presence, reality, or availability of something. What makes existir interesting is not its forms (which are entirely predictable) but its register: in European Portuguese, everyday "there is / there are" is almost always há, not existe. When you reach for existir, you are choosing a slightly more assertive, abstract, or formal verb — "this thing is real, it is out there in the world" — rather than the bare há that just says "here's one."

This page gives you every conjugated form of existir, plus detailed notes on when to pick existir over há.

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Present indicative — presente do indicativo

Imperfect indicative — pretérito imperfeito

Preterite indicative — pretérito perfeito simples

Note: nós existimos is identical in the present and the preterite, as with all regular -ir verbs. Context (often a time expression) tells you which is meant.

Pluperfect indicative, simple — pretérito mais-que-perfeito simples

A synthetic form used almost exclusively in literary and formal writing. In speech, Portuguese uses the compound pluperfect.

Pluperfect indicative, compound — pretérito mais-que-perfeito composto

The everyday way to say had existed. Imperfect of ter + existido.

Present perfect — pretérito perfeito composto

Despite the name, this tense describes a repeated or continuous action up to the present, not a single past event. Têm existido muitos problemas = there have been a lot of problems (lately, ongoing).

Simple future — futuro do indicativo simples

Future perfect — futuro perfeito

Conditional — condicional

Conditional perfect — condicional composto

Present subjunctive — presente do conjuntivo

Imperfect subjunctive — imperfeito do conjuntivo

Future subjunctive — futuro do conjuntivo

Present perfect subjunctive — pretérito perfeito do conjuntivo

Pluperfect subjunctive — pretérito mais-que-perfeito do conjuntivo

Future perfect subjunctive — futuro perfeito do conjuntivo

Imperative — imperativo

Existir rarely appears in the imperative — you don't usually command something to exist — but the forms are regular.

Affirmative:

Negative:

Personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal

Compound personal infinitive — infinitivo pessoal composto

Usage: existir vs há vs ter

This is the single most important thing to understand about existir. In European Portuguese there are three ways to say roughly "there is / there are," and they are not interchangeable.

The core contrast: há is a presentational "here's one" — it introduces new information. Existe is a declarative "this thing is real" — it asserts existence as a property. Compare:

You can often use either, but the feel shifts: há problemas sounds like "we've got problems"; existem problemas sounds like "problems are a fact of life."

Existir + lugar / tempo

When existir takes a location or a time expression, it behaves like a normal verb: it agrees with its subject and sits after it. This is different from há, which is always third-person singular.

Example sentences in context

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Existir is a fully regular -ir verb. All forms are predictable from the stem exist-.
• It agrees with its subject (existem with plural nouns) — unlike existential há, which is always singular.
• Choose há for everyday "there is/are"; choose existir when you want to assert that something is real or when the statement is abstract or formal.
• Tem for "there is" is a Brazilianism; avoid it in European Portuguese.
• Existential haver is invariable (houve stays singular even with plural subjects); existential existir is not — it will agree.
• The past participle existido is regular and used with ter in all compound tenses.