Há uma reunião importante hoje à tarde.

today

Breakdown of Há uma reunião importante hoje à tarde.

• a tarde: the afternoon
• importante: important
• à: at the

Questions & Answers about Há uma reunião importante hoje à tarde.

Why does the sentence use há at the beginning?

In this sentence, há comes from the verb haver and means there is or there are.

So:

• Há uma reunião = There is a meeting
• Há duas reuniões = There are two meetings

In this use, haver is impersonal, so it does not agree with the noun after it.

This is a very common way to express existence in Portuguese, especially in neutral or more formal language.

If the sentence were plural, would it still be há?

Yes. With impersonal haver, the verb stays in the singular.

Examples:

• Há uma reunião importante.
• Há duas reuniões importantes.
• Há muitos problemas.

Even though English changes from there is to there are, Portuguese keeps há the same in this structure.

Can Brazilians say tem uma reunião importante hoje à tarde instead?