The verb haver can also be used to indicate that someone will do something at some point in the future. To use it like this, we conjugate the verb in the Present Indicative tense and add the preposition de. This is a common way of describing a future action or intention, often implying that the action will happen eventually or at some indefinite point in the future.
Hei de visitar a minha avó.I shall visit my grandmother.
Hás de ir a França um dia.You shall go to France one day.
Haver can also be used in a similar fashion to make a request. When haver + de is used to ask for something, it implies “in the future, as soon as you have the time/it is convenient”. Let’s look at a few examples:
Hás de me ver se tenho nódoas no casaco.Check my jacket for stains, would you?
Vocês hão de me preencher estas folhas.Fill in these sheets, will you?
Sr. Pereira, há de me ver se tem o meu agrafador.Mr. Pereira, could you check whether you have my stapler?
These requests sound slightly odd in Portuguese, don’t they? Nevertheless, this is a colloquial and often-used way to ask something of someone with whom you have at least a bit of familiarity.
NOTE: Before the Orthographic Agreement of 1990, these particular usages of the verb haver were easier to spot, since there was a hyphen connecting de to the conjugated verb. For example: Hei-de visitar a minha avó | Hás-de ir a França um dia
Talking About the Future with “Haver”
Comments
Hi !
Is it true that expressions using “haver” are used to desribe future that is ucertian?
for example: “Qualquer dia, hei de escrever um livro”, “Um dia eu hei de viajar por todo o mundo”.
Thanks!
Hi! That’s absolutely correct, just as explained in this Learning Note 🙂
I guess I have the same thought as Sara. From my experiences with hearing Portugues, I often get the feeling that “hei de” seems to imply “should”. So rather than “I shall visit my grandmother”, I hear “I should visit my grandmother”. How do you know which a person means when they say it?
I would say that by definition, “hei de” indicates that the subject intends to perform the action (the uncertainty is not so much on whether they’ll do it, but when). So it’s more binding than ‘should’. In fact, you can say “I should do that – but I won’t!”, which is incompatible with “hei de”.
In any case, just because we say we’ll do something, doesn’t mean we actually will 😉 No way to know just from words alone.
Olá!
Is “haver de” used in a formal or in an informal way?
Olá =) “Haver de” is a neutral construction, applicable to any level of formality.
Hi,
I’m not sure I understand why there is “me” in the phrases above. For example “Vocês hão de ME preencher estas folhas” . For me it will sound less odd without it 🙂
Also, is it an affirmative phrase when we say that in Portuguese or is it also with a question mark at the end as in English translation or at least with the intonation of the question? 🙂
Thanks!
Olá, Ivana. In sentences like those, the “me” refers back to the speaker, as if you were saying “Vocês hão de preencher estas folhas para mim“. In Portuguese, all those examples are affirmative statements, indeed 🙂
You explained that the expression haver+ de+ me + infinitive is used in the affirmative but is it a pollte way of making a request? Without the implication of a question, it feels, at last to me in translation, very direct and more like a cmmand.
It’s more of a gentle command than a request, I would say.
Thank you.
Is the ‘me’ an indirect object? Could you also say, for example, “Hás de lhe ver se tem nódoas no casaco” ?
“Me” can be both a direct or indirect object pronoun, depending on the sentence. It is an indirect object here. And you can also say “hás de lhe ver”, yes (assuming it more as an idiom than standard grammar).
Olá Joseph,
Thanks for the reply. I thought so 🙂 But would it be a mistake or sound worng to drop “me” ? Just curious 🙂
You’re welcome! It’s fine to drop “me” whenever the meaning is essentially complete without it. For example, it’d be absolutely fine to omit it in “Vocês hão de me preencher estas folhas”. But in a sentence such as “Hás de me ajudar”, it might be important to keep it so that it’s clear that the person should help you and not someone else. Just “Hás de ajudar” doesn’t give us enough information (without additional context).
Oh sure, I definitely hear and understand the difference in the second case. It would sound odd even to me, russian speaking, to drop “me” in that case 😊
Thank you for reply!
Could you put the “me” after the verb as well? Like in Spanish? “Has de ajudar-me?”
Yes, that would also be acceptable 🙂
My take is that including the ‘me’ has a similar function to English. You need to fill these in vs you need to fill these in for me. It’s a little more polite: more pleading, less commanding as it attaches an implicit personal plea to the statement. That said it’s pretty fine nuance we’re getting into. Either work.
Hás de ir à França um dia. To me it’s more like “you ought to…” than “you shall…”
Bom fim-de-semana
Thanks for your comment, Richard. It’s hard to capture the exact nuance of ‘hás de’ in English, there’s no direct correspondence to it. Generally speaking (as this varies with context), the construction ‘haver de’ is more of a statement than a suggestion, and ‘shall’ comes closer to that than ‘ought to’ or ‘should’ 🙂
In one of the lessons following this page there’s the phrase: “Ainda hei de ver esse filme”, with the translation of “I shall watch that movie one day”. What is the purpose of “ainda” in this context? Does it change the meaning at all? Wouldn’t the phrase “Hei de ver esse filme” have the same meaning?
Olá 🙂 The word “Ainda” adds emphasis to the sentence without really altering the meaning. A literal translation would be something like “I shall still watch that movie one day”.
Este verbo “haver” é facilmente o mais complicado verbo tenho visto até agora. A estrutura das frases com “haver de” não são simples de todo.
Hello there,
In one of the exercises there are two sentences:
1. Ainda hei de ver esse filme.
2. Ainda hei-de ler esse livro.
Is there a specific reason why in the first case we have hei and de separated and in the second case them connected with “-“?
Olá! The current correct spelling is always “hei de”, with no hyphen. And the correct answer in that exercise does not have the hyphen. The other is one of the incorrect options 🙂
Hi! And what about the option “to be going to” for the translation of “haver de”? Or does this structure imply higher propability of the action being realized? I’m not a native English speaker, so I am trying to figure out whether or not this construction is about an inclination to do smth or about the result.
Olá! I would say that “to be going to”/”will”, per se, do not sufficiently convey the vagueness of “haver de”, but they can be paired with additional elements to complete the meaning. For example: “Hei de tratar disso” – “I’ll take of that eventually/at some point/someday…”. In everyday life, that would sound more natural than using “shall”, anyway 🙂
Hi, the form keeps translating in my head as “you have to” as in Hás de ir a França um dia like it’s really something you should do. In the translation “you shall go to France one day” it’s like a prediction which comes across quite strange in English (unless you’re reading Tarot cards?
Olá. As I wrote in an older comment, it’s hard to capture the exact nuance of ‘hás de’ in English, there’s no direct correspondence to it. In some contexts, like you said, you can think of it as an emphatic recommendation, but it can also work as a statement with a certain predictive value. With this particular example, this is perhaps more evident if you switch the subject to “Hei de ir a França um dia” (I shall/will go to France one day). Sentences such as “Hás de ser famosa um dia” (You shall be famous one day) are also predictive in essence.