"Eu acho que tem um homem ali."

Translation: I think that there is a man there.

[learngood22]

Que= that

So, can it accept "I think that there is a man there." Or am I wrong? Because sometimes in English we do not need a that in a sentence.

[Paulenrique]

yes, that's correct too. But in Portuguese you can't omit a relative pronoun

[mikocot]

there is a man there? who says that =D totally wrong IMO

[brunodc2011]

Yeah like in horror movies before they get killed

[e.cambourn]

First thought was people doing surf life saving.

[TyrusSande]

Could "Eu acho que" be "I feel that.." instead of "I guess/think that". It seems to me they mean the same thing?

[cercidas]

agreed: I was faulted for this too.

[MarkPGeraghty]

I know "tem" can be "there is/are," but how would you construct a sentence like "I think that she has a man."Would you just have to add the subject pronoun "ela" before "tem?"

[Paulenrique]

yes, that would be the normal way to build such sentence =)

[connal]

I wrote: I think you have a man over there. But I was wrong. Not sure why. But I'm sure I will learn eventually :-)

[gaih]

I'm sure we will all, too! I think at the learning stage we are not allowed much liberty here - "you have" clashed perhaps with the accepted "tem/ha¬ ..." (there is or there are) structure.

[David790525]

Eu acho que você tem um homem aí?

[sharkbbb]

• I think (that) you have a man there (with you)

(ali and lá are further away, while aí is close to the listener)

[drewarnold72]

Why is the verb tener used in this sentence for "is" instead of estar? In other words, why isn't the translation "Eu acho que esta um homem ali"?

[WesleyAlcoforado]

The verb ter (not tener) may replace the verb haver (the contrary is not always possible), maintaining the same meaning. This could be rewritten as: Eu acho que há um homem ali.
Haver maps to there to be.

You cannot use estar to translate there to be because you would change the meaning of the sentence. Estar is used to indicate a state, not an existence.

[drewarnold72]

Isso mesmo ajuda! - not sure if I should use mesmo or realmente, but either way your explanation helps a lot!

[barbaratorrance]

achar to find pensar to think , why was achar used for think

[Paulenrique]

To find = encontrar , achar (same meaning here). Eu achei minhas chaves = eu encontrei minhas chaves.

To think = pensar, achar. Pensar: ability of reasoning, imagining. Achar = to have an opinion, point of view.

[lambskinny]

I think that a man is over there. Is this incorrect for ? what reason?

[Paulenrique]

also correct. Maybe another translation for "over there" is "do lado de lá".

[Joannachild]

I think that you have (he/she has) a man there should also be accepted as there is no context, and you cannot assume that them in this sentence means there is

[bfrito]

"acho/achar" could be used as believe as well as think...."penso/pensar" would be the more literal version of "think/to think". (achar little is to find...e.g. "eu achei meu amigo...)

[NarcioNick]

I believe it was said that using tem to mean 'there is' is technically not proper grammer and 'há' is the proper word to use.

Do we really need to use this slang so much instead of the proper há in Duo? Duo seems to default to using tem rather than há. I'd much rather learn to speak properly, so is tem really used more than há? Will people look at me funny if I use há, will it just sound like I'm trying to be overly formal, or are both used commonly?

Also, can anyone comment on its use in Portugal, since I'm learning more for European Portuguese.