haver

Mostly used in one form: há, “there is” or “there are”, and with a time, “ago” — há três anos, “three years ago”. In that sense it never goes into the plural: houve problemas, not houveram. In Brazilian speech tem usually replaces há (tem gente lá fora), so haver sounds written or formal; you'll meet it constantly in books and the news. Its other forms — hei, hão, houve, havia, haja — appear mostly in writing and in phrases like não há de quê (“you're welcome”).

Examples

• Há um problema com o pedido.

  There's a problem with the order.

• Eu me mudei pra cá há três anos.

  I moved here three years ago.

• Houve muitas mudanças na empresa.

  There were a lot of changes at the company.

Related verbs

• ter — to have
• ser — to be
• estar — to be

Mostly found in writing. In speech Brazilians use the forms above instead.