Breakdown of Procuro estacionamento há vinte minutos.
haver
to be (there is / there are)
vinte
twenty
procurar
to look for / to seek to, to try to
o minuto
the minute
o estacionamento
the parking, the car park
Questions & Answers about Procuro estacionamento há vinte minutos.
Why is the present tense verb procuro translated as 'have been looking'?
In Portuguese, when an action started in the past and is still happening right now, you use the present tense. Because you are still actively looking for parking, you simply use procuro (I look).
Doesn't procurar just mean 'to look'? Why isn't there a word for 'for' before the parking?
The verb procurar actually means 'to look for' or 'to search for'. The 'for' is built into the verb itself, so you do not need to add a preposition like por. You just say procuro estacionamento.
Why is há used here to mean 'for'?
The word há comes from the verb haver and is frequently used to express elapsed time. When you use a present tense verb followed by há and an amount of time, it tells us you have been doing that action 'for' that long.
Could I use desde instead of há in this sentence?
No, because há is used with a duration of time (like twenty minutes or three days). The word desde means 'since' and must be used with a specific starting point in time (like 2:00 PM or Tuesday).
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