Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Um dia, hão de contar esta história aos netos com humor em vez de tristeza. - One day they will tell this story to their grandchildren with humour instead of sadness.

Hão de contar is haver de + infinitive, a common way to talk about the future, especially in European Portuguese. It roughly means “will (eventually) tell” or “are bound to tell”.

Nuances:

hão de contar
- Uses haver de
  - infinitive
- Often suggests eventuality, inevitability, or expectation: “They’ll end up telling / I’m sure they’ll tell.”
- Sounds a bit more formal or literary, but is still heard in speech in Portugal.
vão contar
- Uses ir (to go) + infinitive
- Neutral, very common future: “they’re going to tell” / “they will tell”
- Very typical in everyday spoken Portuguese.
contarão
- Simple future of contar
- Much more formal / written, less common in casual speech, especially in Portugal.

In this sentence, hão de contar gives a slight feeling of “one day, they will (surely) tell…”, not just a dry future.

What verb form is hão, and from which verb does it come?

Hão is the 3rd person plural, present indicative of the verb haver.

The (modern) present of haver as an auxiliary is:

hei (I)
hás (you, singular)
há (he/she/it)
havemos or hemos (we – havemos is more usual today)
hão (they)

In hão de contar, hão works as an auxiliary verb in the construction haver de + infinitive.

Why is there no subject pronoun like eles before hão de contar?

Portuguese is a pro‑drop language: you often omit subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

hão clearly indicates 3rd person plural (“they”).
The context (probably the people involved in the story) tells you who “they” are.

So:

Eles hão de contar… = grammatically correct
Hão de contar… = more natural, and very common in Portuguese

The pronoun eles is only added for emphasis or to avoid ambiguity.

Why is it aos netos and not para os netos? And what does aos mean?

With contar in the sense “to tell (something) to someone”, the usual pattern is:

contar algo a alguém = to tell something to someone

So:

contar esta história aos netos = to tell this story to the grandchildren

Here:

a = preposition “to”
os = definite article “the” (masculine plural)
a + os → aos (contraction)

Para os netos is not wrong, but it sounds more like “for the grandchildren” in the sense of purpose or benefit, not a straightforward indirect object.

In this context, aos netos is the idiomatic choice with contar.

What does Um dia mean here? Is it “one day” in the past or in the future?

In this sentence, Um dia means “one day / someday” in the future.

The rest of the sentence uses a future‑oriented form (hão de contar), so Um dia points to an unspecified moment in the future:
“One day, they’ll tell this story…” → someday, in the future.

For a past meaning like “one day, he went to the market”, the verb that follows would normally be in the past, not in this kind of future construction.

So here, you should understand Um dia as “someday”.

Why is it esta história and not essa história? What’s the difference between este/esta and esse/essa in European Portuguese?

In European Portuguese, the traditional distinction is:

este / esta / isto
- Near the speaker (physically or mentally)
- Or something being introduced / very “present” in the discourse
esse / essa / isso
- Near the listener
- Or something that has already been mentioned
aquele / aquela / aquilo
- Far from both speaker and listener (physically or conceptually)

In this sentence, esta história suggests:

“this story (of ours, the one we’re dealing with now)”
It feels close to the speaker, maybe emotionally or in the current conversation.

Using essa história would still be understandable, but in European Portuguese it would more naturally refer to:

A story associated with the listener, or
A story that was already mentioned and is slightly less “here and now” for the speaker.

So esta história fits nicely as “this story we’re talking about (now)”.

What exactly does em vez de tristeza mean? Could we also say em vez de com tristeza or something similar?

Em vez de means “instead of”.

em vez de tristeza = “instead of sadness”

The full phrase is:

com humor em vez de tristeza
Literally: “with humour instead of sadness”

Portuguese often does not repeat the preposition (com) after em vez de, so you get:

com humor em vez de tristeza (standard, natural)

You could say:

com humor em vez de com tristeza

but it sounds heavier and is not necessary. Native speakers usually drop the second com.

Other natural variants:

com humor, não com tristeza = with humour, not with sadness
com humor em vez de com tristeza = grammatically fine, just wordier

For learners, em vez de + noun is a very useful, standard pattern for “instead of + noun”.

Is história always written with the accent, and is there any difference between história and estória?

Today, the standard spelling is história (with an accent on ó) for both:

“history” (the academic subject / past events)
“story” (a tale, anecdote, narrative)

Traditionally:

Some authors used estória (with e) for “fictional story”,
and história for “history”.

However:

This distinction is not part of the official modern spelling rules.
In Portugal, estória is now rare and somewhat outdated.
You can safely use história for both meanings.

So in esta história, it simply means “this story”, and história is the correct and normal spelling.

Can the word order be changed, and where would object pronouns go if I say “tell it to the grandchildren”?

Yes, you can slightly reorder the sentence without changing the meaning much, for example:

Um dia, hão de contar esta história com humor aos netos em vez de tristeza.
Um dia, hão de contar aos netos esta história com humor em vez de tristeza.

All are acceptable; the original is very natural.

If you add a direct object pronoun for “it” (a or la, referring to história), in European Portuguese you typically attach it to the infinitive contar:

Um dia, hão de contá‑la aos netos com humor em vez de tristeza.

or, also common in European Portuguese:

Um dia, hão de a contar aos netos com humor em vez de tristeza.

Both are used; contá‑la (enclitic to the infinitive) is often easier for learners to start with.

So the structure is:

hão de + [infinitive + pronoun] + aos netos
→ hão de contá‑la aos netos… = they will tell it to the grandchildren…