have
part of speech
verb (have, has, had, having; short forms 've, 's, 'd); auxiliary (have done)
meaning for a pupil
1) To have is to own or hold something: I have a bike. tree →
2) To have is to be made of or contain: A week has 7 days. tree →
3) To have is to eat, drink or take part in: have lunch, have a bath, have fun. tree →
4) «Have to» means must: I have to go. tree →
5) Have helps make past tenses: I have finished. tree →
6) To have can mean to get or be ill with: have a cold, have a baby. tree →
7) (casual) «Have got» or just «got» means have: I've got 2; «hafta» and «gotta» mean have to; «I'll have a …» orders food. tree →
8) (rough) «You've had it!» means you are in big trouble; «I've had it with you» means I have lost patience; «have a go at» means attack with words; «been had» means been tricked. tree →
9) (formal) The exam voice says «possess», «be in possession of», «hold», «retain», «comprise», «contain», «be obliged to» (have to). tree →
sense in the lessons
how many someone owns, at the start («had») or now («have», «has»); «has … now» asks for the end amount; «each bag has 4» = the size of one group; in everyday life «have to», «have a go», «have a good day», «have a look»; in science «insects have 6 legs»; in casual talk «got» for have, «I'll have the chips»; in rough talk «you've had it», «I've had enough»; in the exam voice «is in possession of», «retains», «comprises»
examples
- Zoe had 8 books and lost 5. How many books does Zoe have now? tree →
- Each bag has 4 stamps. tree →
- Tom has 3 more pens than Ali. tree →
- A week has 7 days. tree →
- A spider has 8 legs and an insect has 6. tree →
- We have pasta for dinner on Fridays. tree →
- I have to finish my homework. tree →
- Have you ever seen snow? tree →
- Have fun at the party! tree →
- got 7 ants in the jar lol how many legs is that tree →
- Break that again and you've had it! tree →
- How many does Zoe retain, given that she was initially in possession of 8 volumes and subsequently mislaid 5? tree →
note
No clue alone: «had N» is the start, «has … now» asks for the end; «was in possession of» and «retains» in an exam work the same way. Trap: «has N more/fewer … than» is a comparison, not a change. Forms: I/you/we/they have; he/she/it has; past had. A week has 7 days; a day has 24 hours; an insect has 6 legs; a spider has 8 legs. «I've got 3» means I have 3. «You've had it» is a warning, not about owning.
In the corpora
- A pay rise is an increase in pay; some come each year, others have to be asked for.
- One worker alone has little power, but many together are much harder to ignore.
- An inheritance is money or belongings left by someone who has died, as written in their will.
- Rent is often a family's biggest bill, so when it goes up, other spending has to shrink.
- That night she opens her banking app and groans: "The app says we've spent eighty dollars on takeaways this month."
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «have» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.