Unit 4.2
Have and Have got Negative
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Introduction
Have/have got is a verb used to express states like possession, relationship, illnesses and the characteristics of people and things.
When expressed in its negative form, the verb denies something about the subject.
Form
The present simple tenses of have and have got are:
To have
Its structure, in the negative form, is:
Subject + do/does + not + have + object + …
- Do/does: in the negative form, the third person singular changes from do to does.
| Subject | do/does + not | have | Short form |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | do not | have | don’t have |
| You | do not | have | don’t have |
| He | does not | have | doesn’t have |
| She | does not | have | doesn’t have |
| It | does not | have | doesn’t have |
| We | do not | have | don’t have |
| You | do not | have | don’t have |
| They | do not | have | don’t have |
To have got
Its structure, in the negative form, is:
Subject + have/has + not + got + object + …
- Have/has: in the negative form, the third person singular changes from have to has.
| Subject | have/has + not + got | Short form |
|---|---|---|
| I | have not got | haven’t got |
| You | have not got | haven’t got |
| He | has not got | hasn’t got |
| She | has not got | hasn’t got |
| It | has not got | hasn’t got |
| We | have not got | haven’t got |
| You | have not got | haven’t got |
| They | have not got | haven’t got |
Example
To have:
- I do not have dinner at 8 o’clock.
- He doesn’t have three cats.
- We don’t have a room for the guest.
- They don’t have enough money to buy a car.
To have got:
- You haven’t got time to talk to me.
- She hasn’t got five brothers.
- You haven’t got the guts to talk to me.
- They haven’t got any evidence against you.
Use
We use don’t have and haven’t got when we deny that someone possesses someone/something. We use them also to express relationships, illnesses and characteristics of people and things. However they’re not completely interchangeable.
To have:
- can be used to express actions;
- can be used to express past, present and future.
To have got:
- cannot be used to express actions;
- can only be used to express the present.
Summary
Have and have got, in negative form, are used to deny states such as possessions, relationships, illnesses and characteristics of the subject. However, we cannot use one instead of the other.
- Have can be used to express actions in the past, present and future. In the negative form, we start with the subject followed by do not have and an object. In the third person singular, we use does not have.
- Have got cannot be used to express actions and can only be used to express the present. In the negative form, we start with the subject followed by have not got and an object. In the third person singular, we use has not got.
For example:
— “I don’t have lunch at 2 p.m.” / “I haven’t gotlunch at 2 p.m.” = We use have because it is an action.
— “I have not got a car.” = We use have got because it is the absence of possession of something.
NOTE: Have is also used as an auxiliary verb in certain tenses to talk about actions. In that case, we do not need to use do or does. We cannot use have got for this. (“You have not done it.” / “You have not got done it.“).
Let’s revise this content within the {Form} section.Take a look at the {Example} section that shows its use within a context.
Exercises
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