existe

Existe is a verb form found in two Romance languages, primarily Spanish and Portuguese. It is the third-person singular present indicative of existir, meaning to exist. In practical use, it expresses that something is present or real, or that there exists something. In Spanish, existe corresponds to he/she/you (usted) exist; in Portuguese, it is used for he/she/you (ele/ela/você) exists. The word is commonly used in declarative statements, but also appears in questions and literary or formal contexts to emphasize existence.

Etymology and related forms

Existe derives from the Latin existere, itself from ex- “out” and sistere “to cause to stand.” The concept underpins the broader family of forms built around existence, such as existir, existencia, and existente. Although Spanish and Portuguese share the same spelling for this form, pronunciation and some usage conventions differ between the languages.

Usage and nuances

In everyday language, existe often appears where a speaker wants to assert the presence of something: exists a solution, exists a problem. It is common in more formal or precise contexts than the simpler hay (there is) in Spanish. In Portuguese, the same nuance exists, with examples like “Existe uma solução” or “Não existe evidência suficiente.” In logic and mathematics, existential statements are sometimes rendered with exists, and the phrase “existe” is used in natural language to render existential quantification, as in “Existe x tal que…” meaning “There exists an x such that…”

See also

Existir, existencia, existente, existence in logic.