Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Não há eletricidade na casa. - There is no electricity in the house.

Há comes from the verb haver. We use it to mean 'there is' or 'there are' when talking about existence. In Portuguese, we don't use ser or estar (the verbs for 'to be') to say 'there is'.

How do you say 'there is no' in Portuguese? Do I need a separate word for 'no'?

In Portuguese, you simply put Não before the verb. So Não há translates to 'There is not' or 'There is no'. You do not need any extra words to make it negative.

Does há change if we are talking about plural things?

No! When using the verb haver to mean 'there is' or 'there are', it always stays in the singular form há. If the sentence were 'There are no houses', it would still start with Não há.

Where does the word na come from?

na means 'in the'. It is a required combination (contraction) of the preposition em (in/on/at) and the feminine definite article a (the). Since casa (house) is a feminine word, they merge into na.