Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Há dois degraus que estão por arranjar nas escadas. - There are two steps that are yet to be repaired on the stairs.

The structure estar por + infinitive describes a pending action—something that has not been done yet but is expected to happen. When the subject is an inanimate object (like dois degraus), the meaning naturally becomes passive in English: the steps are waiting for someone to repair them. You do not need to put the Portuguese verb into the passive voice here.

Since there are two steps, why doesn't the sentence start with a plural verb instead of the singular Há?

When the verb haver is used to mean "there is" or "there are" to state that something exists, it is an impersonal verb. This means it has no subject and remains strictly in the third-person singular form (há), even when referring to plural items like dois degraus.

Is degraus an irregular plural? I often confuse plurals for words ending in a vowel plus -u.

It is actually completely regular! Nouns ending in the diphthong -au (like degrau or pau) simply take an -s to form the plural. Learners often overthink this because words ending in -ão or -al have trickier plural rules, but -au words are straightforward.

Could I use reparar instead of arranjar here?