The Many Uses of 'Have' in English

Have you ever wondered why the verb have has so many uses in English? It can be used as an auxiliary verb or a helping verb, in the past tense, and even in the present perfect tense. In fact, have can be used to form 21 different tenses! If you are an English learner or just want to brush up on your understanding of this versatile verb, read on to discover how to use have in all its forms.

Have + Objects

I have a book.

You have a car.

They have an apple.

If we want to talk about something that belongs to someone or something else, we use have followed by an object: I’ve got a book.

You’ve got a car.

Have + Nouns

Have is a versatile verb and can be used with many nouns. For example, you might have a pen, or you might have twenty pens. Have is also used to express possession. For example, John has a pen (possession) and John has twenty pens (quantity). Have can also be used in place of to be when describing one's relation to someone or something else. In some cases it may sound less formal than to be. For example: She has brown hair and She is brown-haired. Finally, have indicates that an action happened at an unspecified time or occurred habitually.

Have + Pronouns

If you’re learning English and want to sound professional, then it’s a good idea to think about how your native language handles pronouns. In many languages (Spanish, for example), it can be unclear which pronoun to use when speaking or writing about someone or something else. That issue doesn’t arise in English: have takes a singular form when it refers to possession and a plural form when it refers to multiple possessions.

Have + Adjectives/Adverbs

You can use 'have' with just to say that someone or something only has a certain quality. You can also use it to talk about something that is unusual or surprising: Yes, I have just one apple left. Oh, we have only four hours left until our flight! In informal spoken English, you often hear people saying something like I've only had two coffees today. This means that they haven't had any more than two (e.g., they might also have drunk several cups of tea).

Have used with 'just', 'only', and 'ever'

It can be easy to forget that have is a verb. Not only that, but it has some very specific uses. For example, we have just enough time to go get some groceries. We haven’t had dinner yet; I don’t know if I can finish all of these cookies! Have you ever had pizza in Italy? It’s so different there! If you’re lucky enough to live close to one of those twenty-four hour markets (God bless America!) then you might have ever been able to take advantage of their unbelievable prices for fruits and vegetables by stocking up on deals like these!