Acerca de vs. Há Cerca de vs. A Cerca de: Three Useful Portuguese Phrases
A space and the verb há change the phrase: acerca de introduces a topic, há cerca de marks elapsed time, and a cerca de can mark distance.
Real Life Portuguese · 6 min read · Updated October 14, 2026
The short answer
Acerca de means ‘about’ or ‘regarding’ a subject. It introduces what a conversation, question, or text concerns: conversar acerca do curso (talk about the course). In everyday Brazilian speech, sobre is also common.
Use acerca de to introduce a topic
Keep acerca together when you mean ‘about a topic.’ It does not tell the reader how much time has passed or how far away something is.
A conversa foi acerca do novo projeto.
The conversation was about the new project.
Quero saber mais acerca da cultura brasileira.
I want to know more about Brazilian culture.
O artigo fala acerca das diferenças regionais.
The article is about regional differences.
Choose há or a for time and distance
Há cerca de + time means ‘about … ago’ or ‘for about …,’ depending on the sentence. Há is a form of haver that marks elapsed time: cheguei há cerca de uma hora (I arrived about an hour ago). Do not confuse this time expression with the future: daqui a cerca de uma hora means ‘in about an hour.’
A cerca de + distance means ‘approximately this far away.’ The preposition a points to a measurement or distance, while há points back to elapsed time. Say a cidade fica a cerca de dez quilômetros (the city is about ten kilometers away).
Moro aqui há cerca de dois anos.
I’ve lived here for about two years.
A estação fica a cerca de cinco minutos daqui.
The station is about five minutes from here.
A reunião começa daqui a cerca de meia hora.
The meeting starts in about half an hour.
Put it into practice
Acerca de introduces a topic. Há cerca de points to elapsed time; a cerca de points to an approximate distance or measurement. For a future time, use daqui a.
Quick practice
Which Portuguese example matches “I want to know more about Brazilian culture”?
Choose an answer to check yourself.
Keep practicing with the Real Life Portuguese app
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