Easy Grammar: Has and Have

By Jacqueline Schaalje

Now a really easy grammar subject: has and have.

When do you use have and when has?

Look at the picture. What do you see?

A man hugging his son.

The man has a son.

Note: I’m only going to talk about present simple tense, and not about any other tense. There are some other uses of has, but I will talk about them separately.

Both has and have mean that someone or something belongs to this person. It’s his.

Here is an example for things. I can say: I have a pen.

This means the pen is mine.

Let’s look at some more examples. Carefully read the example sentences.

Have

Have is used for I, we, you, and they.

So:

I have	I have a pen.
You have	You have brown hair.
We have	We have a computer.
They have	They have a big house.

Has

Has is only used in affirmative (= positive) sentences. You won’t find has in negative sentences and not in questions.

Has is used for he, she and it.

So:

He has	He has a dog.
She has	She has four grandparents.
It has	The camera has an inbuilt microphone.

Nathan Jones

Have in Questions

You always use have in questions, for all the pronouns.

So:

Do I have?	Do I have a red nose?
Do you have?	Do you have a bicycle?
Does he have?	Does he have a day off on Friday?
Does she have?	When does she go to the market?
Does it have?	Does the club have exclusive members?
Do we have?	Why do we have three exams this week?
Do they have?	Who do they have as friends?

As you can see, you can put a question word (when, who, where, why, what, etc) before the yes/no question with do or does.

Have in Negative Sentences

And you also use have in negative sentences, for all the pronouns.

So:

I don’t have	I don’t have your book, sorry.
You don’t have	You don’t have any children.
He doesn’t have	He doesn’t have a winter coat.
She doesn’t have	She doesn’t have any time today.
It doesn’t have	The cake doesn’t have any candles.
We don’t have	We don’t have an idea right now.
They don’t have	They don’t have much experience.