Há, faz and desde: how long ago, for how long, since when

"How long have you been here?" is one of the first questions any Brazilian will ask you, and the answer needs a structure English does not have. Portuguese puts the verb in the present — Moro aqui há dois anos — where English insists on "have lived". Say Morei aqui há dois anos instead and you locate the residence in the past, without expressing the duration continuing to now or necessarily saying that you moved away. The desde half matters just as much: desde takes a date, há and faz take a count, and swapping them produces a sentence Brazilians will hear as broken even though every word is right.

1. Three questions, three patterns

The first one is finished business. The second and third are still running. Hold on to that split and the rest is detail.

2. "Ago": há, faz, atrás

Common Pitfalls

• Using a past model to express duration continuing to now. ⚠️ Morei aqui há dois anos is grammatical, but describes a past period rather than the ongoing duration. ✅ Moro aqui há dois anos. (I’ve lived here for two years — and still do.) Use the present in this model.

• Pluralizing temporal faz or há. In the standard impersonal construction they stay singular: ❌ Fazem dois anos, ❌ Hão dois anos → ✅ Faz dois anos / Há dois anos. Their tense can change with the reference point, as in fazia or havia; impersonality does not prohibit that.

• Putting a length after desde. Desde wants a point: ❌ Moro aqui desde dois anos → ✅ Moro aqui há dois anos (for two years) or ✅ Moro aqui desde 2023. (since 2023.)

• Doubling up with há … atrás. The combination ⚠️ há dois anos atrás is redundant and often shortened in careful writing, although it occurs and can be accepted in context. Prefer ✅ há dois anos / dois anos atrás (two years ago).

• Typing daqui há for the future. ❌ Daqui há uma semana → ✅ Daqui a uma semana. (A week from now.) If faz doesn't fit, neither does há.

• Confusing elapsed and bounded duration. Por gives the length of a bounded or planned period; it does not itself mean that the period is already over. Morei no Rio por um ano describes a bounded past period (I lived in Rio for a year), while Moro no Rio há um ano gives the elapsed duration continuing to now (I’ve lived in Rio for a year).