Olá amigos. Esta é a minha primeira vez a publicar.
I’m very confused about some of the usages of the verb Haver. I grew up in a Portuguese speaking family and saying, “Hás de me trazer um chocolate de lá” would mean something like, “You should” or “You probably should” or “Why don’t you bring me a chocolate from there.” In the lesson for Haver in A2, the answer for “Hás de me trazer um chocolate de lá” is, “You shall bring me a chocolate from there.” It’s more of a command than a request.
Growing up, I think my family would say something like, “Traga-me um chocolate de lá.” “Hás de me trazer um chocolate de lá” wouldn’t be said as a command but rather a request. My family was from the Azores, though, so maybe that’s where the difference lies?
Olá, @fraposo! Good question. The use of “hás de” in your family is aligned with how the expression is used throughout the whole of Portugal, and also with how we explain it in this Learning Note (see also the comment section for further insights): Talking About the Future with “Haver” | Practice Portuguese
It can be hard to capture the nuanced uses of “hás de” in an English translation. Depending on context, it can lie somewhere between an emphatic suggestion, request, a gentle command, or the expression of a strong wish, prediction or intention. For the sake of consistency and disambiguation*, we have settled for translating it mostly as shall throughout the exercises.
*Other translation possibilities, even if more accurate in a way, can also add confusion – e.g. with “you should”, people might expect to see “tu devias”; with “why don’t you…?”, people might expect to see “porque é que…?”, and so on.
This was exactly my question. I’m glad somebody has asked it already.
Is há de in Portuguese the same as hay que in Spanish? In Spanish this would mean someone must or should. However in the course “Hão de me dizer como fizeram isto” translates as “You (plural) will tell me how you did this” and “You (plural) should tell me how you did this” is marked as incorrect.
Based on Spanish, it seems to me that “you should” is a better translation. Does the use of “há de” differ from Spanish or is this done for consistency?
@igormashnin1, in the example you gave, should doesn’t quite capture the right feeling. For us, “hão de me dizer como fizeram isto” is stronger than that, like “You have to tell me how you did this”.
I can only comment superficially on Spanish vs. Portuguese, but my understanding is that hay que is generally not used like the Portuguese haver de. Haver de is conjugated, while hay que is fixed and used impersonally, as far as I know. I believe hay que also doesn’t cover certain uses of haver de, such as expressing a personal wish or making a prediction.