"I have curiosity."

Translation: Eu tenho curiosidade.

[pedemaio]

Wouldn't "I am curious" be a better English sentence?

[Johnny_Lingot]

Yes, by far

[seglea]

Indeed. It is hard to imagine a context where an English speaker would say "I have curiosity". I hope Portuguese speakers aren't being given that as a correct translation.

[deactivated user]

I have curiosity is definitely not English.

[ruama_semtempo]

It sounds well and you can also say "Estou curioso para saber" if the curiosity is transient.

Generally, we use ser + adjective about personal characteristics that are permanent.

• Eu sou alto
• Eu sou velho
• Eu sou medroso, etc.

Describing the exact characteristic requires the verb ter

• Eu tenho 1,8 m
• Eu tenho 90 anos
• Eu tenho medo do escuro

For transient characteristics and conditions, we use estar + adjective or estar com + noun.

• Eu estou com fome
• Eu estou com medo
• Eu estou curioso

[deactivated user]

Thanks for the great explanation, great stuff! Have a lingot.

Ruama your English is magnificent! Only occasionally does it show you are not a natural English speaker.

We would write It sounds good, it sounds fine. On the other hand, we would say it works well . I suspect it sounds well is grammatically correct, but it's not what people say.

[ruama_semtempo]

We Brazilians wouldn't say that sentence either, unless the curiosity is specific, for instance "Eu tenho curiosidade de saber quantos anos ele tem". But, in general, we would also say "Eu sou curiosa(o)".

[deactivated user]

And could you say, Eu estou com curiosidade de saber ... ?

[m3atman]

Is there any rule to follow when the "a" is needed?

Eu tenho esperanca = wrong

Eu tenho a curiosidade = wrong

Is it the vowel at the beginning?