"Eu acho que tem um homem ali."
Translation:I think that there is a man there.
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2305
- I think (that) you have a man there (with you)
(ali and lá are further away, while aí is close to the listener)
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.
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.