Fala Gringo › Verbs › haver
haver — there to be / to exist
Full conjugation of haver in the tenses that matter for everyday speech, with pronunciation hints in the Rio (carioca) accent and example sentences the way Brazilians actually talk — not textbook European Portuguese.
How to use haver in Brazilian Portuguese
Haver is the Brazilian Portuguese verb for there to be / to exist. It is an irregular verb: 6 of its forms in the three tenses below break the regular -er pattern (hei, há, hão, houve, houvemos, houveram), and those are the ones to learn by heart.
Three tenses do almost all the work in conversation. The presente covers the present and the near future: há — there is / are. The pretérito perfeito is the finished past, the English simple past: houve — there was / were. The pretérito imperfeito is for habits, background and how things used to be: havia — there was / were.
Presente — present tense
| Person | Form | Pronunciation | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| eu | heiI have (archaic; survives only in "hei de") | ||
| você / ele / ela | háthere is / are | ||
| nós | havemoswe have (archaic) | ||
| vocês / eles / elas | hãothey have (archaic) |
Pretérito Perfeito — simple past
| Person | Form | Pronunciation | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| eu | houveI had (rare) | ||
| você / ele / ela | houvethere was / were | ||
| nós | houvemoswe had (rare) | ||
| vocês / eles / elas | houveramthey had (rare) |
Pretérito Imperfeito — past habitual, “used to”
| Person | Form | Pronunciation | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| eu | haviaI used to have (rare) | ||
| você / ele / ela | haviathere was / were | ||
| nós | havíamoswe used to have (rare) | ||
| vocês / eles / elas | haviamthey used to have (rare) |