If you’ve been learning Portuguese for a while, you’ve probably come across the little word há—it pops up often in everyday speech. Há is actually a conjugated form of the verb haver, which has several vital uses in Portuguese.

So, what does the verb haver mean, and when do we use it?

In Portuguese, haver is commonly used to express the existence or occurrence of something, to indicate how long something has been happening, and sometimes as an auxiliary verb in compound tenses.

Here are a few examples:

(1) Há algumas coisas que não entendo.
There are a few things I can’t quite understand.

(2) O Gabriel vive no Porto há 4 meses.
Gabriel has been living in Porto for 4 months. 

(3) Ela havia estado no Brasil antes de vir para Portugal.
She had been to Brazil before she came to Portugal.

Let’s dive in.

Expressing Time with Haver

One of the most common uses of the verb haver is to express the passage of time.

Ongoing actions

When we want to say how long something has been happening (and is still ongoing), we use há followed by a time expression:

O Gabriel vive no Porto há 4 meses.
Gabriel has been living in Porto for 4 months. 

This sentence describes an ongoing action that started four months ago and continues into the present—Gabriel still lives in Porto.

👉 Note: If the action is no longer ongoing (was ongoing in the past), we don’t use há. Instead, we simply state the duration with the verb in the past tense:

O Gabriel viveu no Porto 4 meses.
Gabriel lived in Porto for 4 months (but no longer does). 

Completed Actions

Há also appears with completed actions to indicate how much time has passed since something happened:

A Mariana visitou o Brasil há 2 anos.
Mariana visited Brazil 2 years ago.

Here, the verb visitou is in the past tense, and há 2 anos tells us when the action occurred.

👉 Note: The terms “Durative Actions” and “Punctual Actions” are commonly used in grammar textbooks to describe what I refer to here as “Ongoing Actions” and “Completed Actions”, respectively.

Impersonal Use

One of the key features of the verb haver in Portuguese is its impersonal usage—meaning it doesn’t have a grammatical subject. In this case, haver is always used in the third-person singular, regardless of what follows.

	3-person singular
Presente	há
Pretérito Perfeito	houve
pretérito Imperfeito	havia
Presente do Conjuntivo	haja

There is / There are

Just like in English we say “there is” or “there are”, in Portuguese we use há, havia, or houve (depending on the tense) to express the existence or occurrence of something.

Importantly, even if we’re talking about more than one person or thing, we still use the singular form of haver:

Há só uma pessoa na sala de espera.
There is only one person in the waiting room.

Há coisas que não entendo.
There are things that I can’t understand.

The same rule applies in the past: we continue using the third-person singular form of haver even when referring to multiple people or things:

Ontem havia muita gente na rua.
Yesterday, there were many people in the streets.

In this context, existir is often interchangeable with haver. However, unlike haver, existir does agree in number with the subject:

(1) Eu sei que há um segredo que ainda está por revelar. 
(2) Eu sei que existe um segredo que ainda está por revelar. 
I know that there is a secret that is yet to be revealed.

(1) Há histórias que nunca se esquecem.
(2) Existem histórias que nunca se esquecem
There are tales that you never forget.

Both options are correct, but while haver remains singular and impersonal, existir behaves like a regular verb in subject-verb agreement.

Obligation: Há que

The Portuguese verb haver can also be used to express an impersonal sense of obligation, especially with the structure há que + infinitive. This form is used when there’s a general need or duty—without directing it at any particular person.

In English, it’s often translated as “one must” or “it’s necessary to”:

Há que continuar a lutar.
One must keep on fighting.

Há que entender que nem sempre podemos ter aquilo que queremos.
One must realize that we don’t always get what we want.

👉 Personal Obligation: Ter que
In contrast, ter que (or ter de) expresses personal obligation, directed at a specific person and conjugated accordingly:

Tens de continuar a lutar.
You have to keep at it.

Tens de entender que nem sempre podemos ter aquilo que queremos.
You must realize that we don’t always get what we want.

Learn more about the Portuguese verb ter here.

Personal Usage (Conjugated)

In this section, haver is conjugated according to the subject of the sentence—unlike in its impersonal uses.

Here are a few common conjugations:

	Presente	Pretérito Perfeito	Pretérito Imperfeito
eu	hei	houve	havia
tu	hás	houveste	havias
você ela, ele	há	houve	havia
nós	havemos	houvemos	havíamos
vocês elas, eles	hão	houveram	haviam

As an Auxiliary: Perfect Tenses

Like ter, the verb haver can also function as an auxiliary verb to form compound (Perfect) tenses—though it’s less commonly used this way in modern European Portuguese.

Compare the two forms:

(1) Não me lembro de ter dito isso.
(2) Não me lembro de haver dito isso.
I can’t recall having said that.

(1) Ela tinha estado no Brasil antes de vir para Portugal.
(2) Ela havia estado no Brasil antes de vir para Portugal.
She had been to Brazil before she came to Portugal.

(1) Nós tínhamos completado os nossos cursos antes do nosso primeiro emprego.
(2) Nós havíamos completado os nossos cursos antes do nosso primeiro emprego.
We had finished our degrees before we got our first job.

👉 In Brazilian Portuguese, haver as an auxiliary is slightly more common than in European Portuguese. Read more about the differences between the two standards: European vs. Brazilian Portuguese – How Different Are They Really?

Expressing Hope and Certainty

We use haver in the Present tense to express strong belief or hope that something will happen—even if we don’t know when or how (we just know that it will come to pass eventually):

Hei de ter tempo e dinheiro para viajar pelo mundo inteiro.
I will eventually have time and money to travel the whole world.

Tu hás de aprender a língua Portuguesa.
You will eventually learn Portuguese.

Ela há de conseguir vencer esta fase difícil.
She will eventually overcome this difficult phase.

Eles hão de se arrepender.
They will eventually regret it.

Should / Must have

When conjugated in the Imperfect tense (havia de) and followed by an infinitive, haver takes on the nuance of modality—closely mirroring dever. Depending on the context, it may mean should or must have:

(1)Tu havias de cá vir mais vezes.
(2) Tu devias cá vir mais vezes.
You should come by more often.

(1) Vocês haviam de ter ficado confundidos com tanta informação contraditória.
(2) Vocês devem ter ficado confundidos com tanta informação contraditória.
You must have gotten confused with so much contradictory information.

👉 Learn more about Portuguese modal verbs: Portuguese Equivalents of English Modal Verbs.

Other uses

Wishing well

We use haver to express gratitude, desires, and wishes. In this case, we use the Present Subjunctive:

	Presente (Subjunctive)
eu	haja
tu	hajas
você ela, ele	haja
nós	hajamos
vocês elas, eles	hajam

Here’re a few examples:

Bem hajas!
Bless you! / Much appreciated!

Haja saúde!
Let’s hope for good health!

Haja dinheiro!
May the money keep flowing!

Haja paciência!
You’ve got to have patience!

Hajam mais dias assim!
Let there be more days like this!

Confrontational

We use the structure ter de se haver to express confrontation. In this case, ter is the verb that gets conjugated, while haver stays in the Infinitive:

Tive de me haver com muitas dificuldades.
I had to cope with many difficulties.

Todos nós temos de nos haver com as alterações climáticas.
We all have to face climate change.

Ela vai ter de se haver com a justiça.
She will have to face justice.