Haver de + Infinitive (Intention / Literary Future) | Portuguese (Portugal) Grammar

Of all the ways European Portuguese expresses future and intention, haver de + infinitive is the one with the most flavor. It is not the neutral vou fazer, not the formal-written farei, not the obligation-marking tenho de fazer. Hei de fazer carries a particular subjective weight: the speaker's resolve, a personal promise, a fated inevitability. English has no single equivalent; the closest is literary shall ("I shall return"), with its old-fashioned ring of determination.

This construction is not something you will drop into a casual text message. But it lives and breathes in Portuguese literature, in proverbs, in solemn promises, and in a certain kind of emphatic everyday declaration -- "you'll see!" Learn it and you will be able to read Pessoa, Saramago, and a Portuguese grandmother delivering life advice.

The three pieces

Slot	What fills it	What changes
auxiliary	haver, in some tense	conjugates for person (irregular forms!)
linker	de (preposition, mandatory)	never changes
main verb	bare infinitive	never changes

The preposition de is obligatory. Hei fazer exists only in very old literary texts and is not produced today. Modern EP always uses hei de fazer.

Hei de visitar o Algarve no próximo verão.

I shall visit the Algarve next summer.

Hás de ver, tudo se vai resolver.

You'll see, everything is going to work itself out.

Havemos de conseguir, não te preocupes.

We'll manage it, don't worry.

Present paradigm

The present of haver used as an auxiliary is irregular and dedicated to this construction. These are not the same forms you use when haver means "there is / there are."

Subject	haver (present, auxiliary)	Example with ir	Meaning
eu	hei	hei de ir	I shall go / I intend to go
tu	hás	hás de ir	you shall go
ele / ela / você	há	há de ir	he/she/you shall go
nós	havemos	havemos de ir	we shall go
eles / elas / vocês	hão	hão de ir	they/you shall go

A few notes on these forms:

Hei (eu): no accent, just "hei." It rhymes with rei ("king").
Hás (tu): acute accent mandatory -- without it you have has, which is not a Portuguese word.
Há (ele/ela/você): acute accent mandatory. This is the same form as impersonal há meaning "there is."
Havemos (nós): the regular first-person plural form. You will also encounter the archaic hemos, which appears in older texts and a handful of set phrases but is essentially obsolete in modern use. Stick with havemos today.
Hão (eles/elas/vocês): nasalized, with the mandatory tilde.

Hei de ir ao teu casamento, prometo.

I shall come to your wedding, I promise.

Hás de aprender, só precisas de tempo.

You'll learn -- you just need time.

Ela há de perceber, dá-lhe tempo.

She'll understand, give her time.

Havemos de voltar a este sítio um dia.

We shall return to this place someday.

Eles hão de descobrir a verdade mais cedo ou mais tarde.

They'll find out the truth sooner or later.

Meaning: resolve, promise, fateful future

Haver de + inf is not a neutral future. It is marked. Every use comes with some flavor of:

Personal resolve or intention. "I will do this -- I mean it."
Promise or threat. "You will see" as comfort, or as warning.
Fateful inevitability. "It must happen this way."
Rhetorical declaration. "A man shall be just" -- the voice of proverb or moral claim.

This is where hei de + inf parts company with vou + inf. Vou ir a Portugal is a plan, something on the calendar. Hei de ir a Portugal is a vow, something the speaker holds as a personal commitment. The time is not specified; the resolve is.

Promises and personal commitments

Hei de voltar para te ver, um dia destes.

I'll come back to see you, one of these days (I promise I will).

Havemos de fazer essa viagem, nem que seja daqui a dez anos.

We will make that trip, even if it's ten years from now.

Mild threats or warnings

Hás de arrepender-te.

You'll regret it.

Hão de pagar por isto, acredita.

They'll pay for this, believe me.

Consolation and reassurance

One of the most common colloquial uses -- still alive in modern EP -- is the reassuring "hás de ver" or "há de correr bem" ("you'll see," "it'll turn out fine").

Não te preocupes, tudo há de correr bem.

Don't worry, everything will turn out fine.

Hás de ver que não é assim tão grave.

You'll see it's not as bad as you think.

Proverbs and moral declarations

The construction is a natural fit for proverbs and maxims, where the speaker is declaring a truth that holds with a sense of fated necessity.

(proverb) Quem tudo quer, tudo há de perder.

Whoever wants everything shall lose everything.

(literary) O homem há de ser justo, ainda que o mundo o desconheça.

Man shall be just, even if the world ignores it.

Paradigm in other tenses

Imperfect: "was supposed to" / "would (in the future-in-the-past)"

The imperfect of haver gives a specific, literary construction: a future-in-the-past with the resolve-flavor intact. English translates it with "was going to," but with a more dramatic ring.

Subject	haver (imperfect)	Example
eu	havia	havia de ir
tu	havias	havias de ir
ele / ela / você	havia	havia de ir
nós	havíamos	havíamos de ir
eles / elas / vocês	haviam	haviam de ir

(literary) Havia de voltar a Lisboa um dia, mas a vida tinha outros planos.

He would return to Lisbon someday, but life had other plans.

Ela havia de casar com ele, toda a gente dizia.

She was going to marry him, everyone said so.

Synthetic future: "shall have to" / "will"

The synthetic future haverei de + inf is archaic-poetic. It is found in older literary texts and occasionally in very formal rhetoric, but never in ordinary speech.

(archaic / poetic) Haverei de cantar-te em versos um dia.

I shall sing of you in verse someday.

For modern EP, use hei de + inf in the present or havia de + inf in the past. The synthetic haverei de is only for reading.

Register: where this construction lives

Here is a fair characterization of where you will encounter haver de + inf in contemporary European Portuguese:

Context	Frequency	Notes
Literary prose (Pessoa, Saramago, Lobo Antunes)	High	Standard tool of narrative and authorial voice
Proverbs and fixed expressions	High	Havemos de ver!, Hás de ver!
Promises and solemn declarations	Moderate	Alive in speech when the speaker is being emphatic
Everyday casual speech (making plans)	Low	For this, use ir + inf
News and journalistic writing	Low	Slightly old-fashioned for news prose
Academic writing	Low-moderate	Appears in essays with rhetorical weight

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If a Portuguese native is giving you a plain future like "I'll call you later," they will say ligo-te depois or vou ligar-te depois, never hei de ligar-te depois. Reserve hei de + inf for moments where you want to add weight, resolve, or solemnity. Used in a casual context, it sounds grandiose or mock-epic.

Contrast with ir + inf and the synthetic future

The three main future constructions of EP, side by side:

Construction	Register	Flavor	Example
ir inf	Neutral, everyday	Plan in place, near future	Vou telefonar-lhe amanhã.
synthetic future	Formal, written	Neutral, somewhat distant	Telefonar-lhe-ei amanhã.
haver de inf	Literary, rhetorical	Resolve, promise, fate	Hei de telefonar-lhe um dia destes.

All three can describe future events, but they are not interchangeable. The choice signals what the speaker is doing with the future claim.

Vou estudar mais.

I'm going to study more (plan for the near future).

Estudarei mais.

I will study more (neutral, formal statement).

Hei de estudar mais.

I shall study more (personal resolve, commitment).

The third has a flavor the first two do not: the speaker is making a vow to themselves or to someone else. A teacher who hears hei de estudar mais from a student hears more than a forecast -- they hear a promise.

Contrast with ter de + inf

Ter de + inf marks obligation; haver de + inf marks resolve. They sit on the same axis (something the speaker is committed to doing) but from opposite sides.

Tenho de ir = I am obliged to go. The push comes from outside.
Hei de ir = I intend to go, I will go. The push comes from within.

Tenho de ir ao banco amanhã, o prazo acaba.

I have to go to the bank tomorrow, the deadline is up.

Hei de ir ao banco um dia destes, já não vou lá há meses.

I should go to the bank one of these days, I haven't been in months.

The first is driven by the deadline; the second is a loose personal intention. English captures the difference with have to vs should really / shall.

Negation and word order

Não precedes haver, as in every periphrasis. The de + infinitive block stays intact.

Não hei de esquecer isto tão depressa.

I won't forget this so soon.

Ela não há de gostar da notícia.

She won't like the news.

❌ Hei não de ir.

Incorrect -- negation must precede haver.

Object pronouns

With haver de + inf, the object pronoun attaches to the infinitive in affirmative sentences with no proclisis trigger.

Hei de contar-te tudo, quando te vir.

I shall tell you everything when I see you.

Havemos de encontrá-los, mais cedo ou mais tarde.

We shall find them, sooner or later.

With a proclisis trigger (não, que, nunca), the pronoun jumps in front of haver.

Não me hás de enganar tão facilmente.

You won't fool me so easily.

Sei que me hão de perdoar.

I know they'll forgive me.

Archaic and literary variants

A few forms you may encounter when reading older Portuguese texts:

Hemos de (for havemos de): archaic first-person plural. Found in older literature and hymns; essentially obsolete today. Use havemos de in modern Portuguese.
Haverei de + inf: synthetic future of the auxiliary, stacked on the periphrasis. Highly literary. Rare even in contemporary literature.
Haver + inf (no de): the construction without the linker exists only in very old texts -- Camões, 16th-century prose. Do not produce it.
Mesoclisis: in the synthetic future of haver, mesoclitic pronouns are possible: haverei de dizer-lhe → dir-lhe-ei (if you switch to the synthetic future of the main verb instead). This is very formal and rare.

For reading classical Portuguese, recognize these forms. For writing and speaking, use the standard modern paradigm above.

Comparison with English

English has no exact match, but three near-translations cover most uses:

Portuguese	English	Flavor
Hei de ir.	I shall go. / I'll go for sure.	Resolve, intention
Hás de ver.	You'll see. / Just you wait.	Promise, consolation, threat
Há de acontecer.	It will happen. / It is bound to happen.	Fate, inevitability
Havemos de conseguir.	We shall manage / We'll make it.	Collective resolve
Hão de pagar por isto.	They'll pay for this.	Threat, mild menace

Literary English shall is the closest register match. "I shall return" (General MacArthur) carries the same flavor as hei de voltar. Modern everyday English mostly uses will for this, but the solemnity gets lost.

Common mistakes

❌ Hei ir ao casamento.

Incorrect -- the preposition de is mandatory.

✅ Hei de ir ao casamento.

I shall go to the wedding.

Without de, the construction is broken. Haver + bare infinitive is archaic Camões-era Portuguese.

❌ Eu há de ir.

Incorrect agreement -- há is the ele/ela/você form.

✅ Eu hei de ir.

I shall go.

The present forms hei, hás, há, havemos, hão must match the subject. Hei is for eu; há is for ele/ela/você.

❌ Hei de irei.

Incorrect -- can't stack two future constructions.

✅ Hei de ir. / Irei.

I shall go. / I will go.

The main verb in a periphrasis stays in the bare infinitive. Conjugated forms are not allowed.

❌ Hei de ligar-te daqui a cinco minutos.

Overblown -- hei de is too heavy for a five-minute plan.

✅ Vou ligar-te daqui a cinco minutos.

I'll call you in five minutes.

For mundane, near-future plans, use ir + inf. Hei de + inf carries weight; don't burn it on trivial commitments.

❌ Hás de ir.

(in a casual, friendly context) Sounds too solemn or menacing.

✅ Vais ter de ir. / Tens de ir.

You'll have to go. (for a practical requirement) / You have to go.

If you are telling a friend they have to do something routine, don't reach for hás de + inf -- it will sound like a pronouncement of doom. Use ter de / que + inf.

Key takeaways

Form: conjugated haver
- de
  - bare infinitive. The de is mandatory.
Present paradigm: hei / hás / há / havemos / hão de + inf. Watch the accents.
Archaic form: hemos de (for havemos de) is obsolete in modern EP; use havemos de.
Meaning: personal resolve, commitment, promise, fated inevitability. Closer to English literary shall than to will.
Register: literary, rhetorical, solemn. Alive in modern EP for promises, consolation, proverbs, and emphatic declarations. Not the construction for everyday plans.
Contrast: ir + inf is the neutral everyday future (plan in place); haver de + inf is the resolved, committed future (personal vow).
Imperfect: havia de + inf is a future-in-the-past with the resolve flavor -- literary, common in narrative prose.
Negation: não before haver, never inside the unit.
Pronouns: enclitic on the infinitive by default (hei de contar-te); proclitic to haver with a trigger (não me hás de enganar).
Reading Pessoa or Saramago, you will meet haver de + inf constantly. Reading a text message from a friend, you probably will not.