Comparative Grammar 4.4. Expressions Using “To Have” & “To Do” in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, & French

In this comparative grammar lesson of Romance languages, we study expressions using “to have” and “to do” in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, & French.

Table of Contents

• The Verbs “to have” & “to do” in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, & French
• Expressions using “to have”
• Expressions using “to do”
• Level IV – Intermediate

The Verbs “to have” & “to do” in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, & French

Some expressions do not make sense if literally translated into English. For example, the expression “dare un esame,” in Italian, meaning “to take an exam,” uses the verb “dare” (to give) rather than “prendere” (to take). In this section, we will learn some expressions using “to have” and “to do or to make” that are common in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French.

Expressions using “to have”

In addition to the obvious use of “to have” to indicate possession, e.g., “I have two children,” there are some less obvious uses of the verb “to have” in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French.

In English, we use the verb “to be” to describe age, as in “how old are you?” and “I am 30 years old.”

In Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French, the verb “to have” is used instead; that is, we literally say, “I have 30 years old” rather than, “I am 30 years old.”

Here are a few more examples:

Some expressions describe a feeling or desire using the verb “to have,” while their equivalents in English use the verb “to be.” For example, in the expression “Tengo miedo” in Spanish, meaning “I am afraid,” the word “miedo” means “fear.” Thus, we literally say, “I have fear.” Some other examples include:

The verbs “haber” in Spanish and “haver” in Portuguese are used as auxiliary verbs in some compound tenses.

Another common and special use of the verb “haber” in Spanish and “haver” in Portuguese is the expression “there is/are …,” and is the same for singular and plural. The verbal form is considered in the present tense and does not take a personal pronoun as a subject.

Another use of the verb “haber” in Spanish in the form “hay que…(infinitive)” is to express obligation, meaning “One must …” or “It must be that you ….” For example:

We can express the obligation “have to …” by using “tener que”  in Spanish and “haver de” or “ter que” in Portuguese followed by the infinitive, for example:

In Portuguese, one way to express the meaning of “ago” or “for” is by using the form “há” of the verb “haver,” for example:

Notice that the second example above uses the present tense in Portuguese, i.e., “vejo,” whereas the equivalent sentence in English uses the present perfect tense.

Expressions using “to do”

There are many expressions that use the verb “to do or to make” in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French, when similar expressions in English would not. We have encountered the verb “to do or to make” used with weather expressions in Level III, Lesson 7.

Let us examine some other expressions that use the verb “to do or to make.” In general, we use the verb “to do” when referring to sports and hobbies. Here are some examples:

The verb “to do or to make” is also used with many house chores and day-to-day tasks. Examples include:

There are many other idioms and expressions that use the verb “to do or to make” that do not fall under any of the aforementioned categories, such as:

The verb “fare” in Italian can be used in many causative expressions meaning “to have someone do something.” For example:

Similarly, the verb “faire” in French can be used meaning “to have someone do something.” For example:

Finally, the verb “hacer” in Spanish can be used to describe something that happened in the past. Depending on the context, it can mean the equivalent of “ago,” as shown in the following examples:

Next: Present Subjunctive Tense I

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