Learn English Grammar: "to have" in the present tense

You HAVE to watch this lesson! You will learn how to use the commonly confused irregular verb "to have" in positive, negative, and question forms. The verb "to have" is very important because it is used on its own and as a helping verb. If you're a beginner, learn to use this important verb correctly from the start! If you're more advanced, review the conjugation of "to have" to make sure you know this verb perfectly. Next, take the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/learn-english-grammar-to-have-present-tense/ and make sure you don't have any mistakes!

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. In the next few minutes you're going to master one of the most important verbs in the English language, and that's the verb "to have". Now, not only is it one of the most important verbs because we use it so often for so many different things, it's also, unfortunately, a verb where a lot of students make mistakes, especially at a basic level. And sometimes these basic mistakes can cause problems even down the road when you reach advanced levels. So, whether you're a beginner student, or intermediate, or advanced - please watch and just make sure you know it; and if you're reviewing it, make sure that you review it really, really well. Okay? So, here we go.

So, with the verb "to have", one of the reasons it's so important is because we use it not only as a basic verb by itself, but we also use it as a helping verb. All right? When we use it as a basic verb by itself, we can use it to show possession; what somebody has, what somebody owns. For example, you could talk about an object that you have, a thing that you have. You could say: "I have a car." You could talk about somebody's features, or qualities, or characteristics. For example: "She has nice hair." Or you could talk about relationships that people have, for example: "They have children." Okay? You can also use the verb "to have" to talk about actions, and we use this a lot. Like: "I... I have a shower every day. I have dinner at 7 o'clock." Or: "He has a lot of meetings today." Right? So, we use it in so many different ways. And, of course, as I said, we also use it in more advanced ways as a helping verb in our perfect tenses. For example: "I have done my homework." Okay?

So, let's begin understanding exactly how this simple verb is structured. All right. So, I've divided the board into three sections: positive, negative, and questions. So, you'll learn exactly how to use it in all three situations, and those are the only situations. Okay? So, first: "I have", "You have", "We have", and "They have". With these four pronouns, we say: "have", and that's our base form of the verb, and that's what we use here.

But where does it change, and where do most of the mistakes happen? They happen, here. For: "he", "she", and "it", we don't say "have". We have to say: "has". "He has a car.", "She has a car.", "It has a camera." Okay? Your cellphone, for example. All right? So, make sure that you remember this, because this part is very important. You will see that actually we don't have "has" in any other section of this entire structure, but we do have it here. Okay? I'll come back to it.

Now, what happens when we make the sentence negative? So, instead of saying: "I have a camera", you can say: "I don't have a camera." What is "don't"? "Don't" is short for "do not", but when we're speaking, we just shorten it, we contract it, and it becomes "don't". "I don't have a camera, you don't have a camera, we don't have a camera, and they don't have a camera, so we're not going to take any pictures." Okay? All right. "Don't have".

Now, what happens when we're saying: "he", "she", or "it"? Now, two things happen. First of all, we have to use a different word, here. We don't say: "do not", we say: "does not". When we shorten it, it becomes: "He doesn't". And then you come back to the base form of the verb, so you say: "He doesn't have". Not: "He doesn't has", which is a mistake that many students make, but you're coming back to the base form of the verb. Look at all the places where we see the base form of the verb. Okay? Here, here, here, here, here. So, where do we not have the base form of the verb? Only with: "he", "she", and "it" in the positive sentence. Okay? So, let's come back: "He doesn't have a car.", "She doesn't have a car.", and "It doesn't have a camera." Okay? That's the negative.

Now, if you want to ask a question, then, again, we're going to use the words: "do" and "does". So, here: "Do I have...?", "Do you have...?", "Do we have...?", "Do they have...?" All right? And with: "he", "she", and "it", you have to use the word "does". "Does he have a camera?", "Does she have a cellphone?", "Does it have an air conditioner?" Okay? The... The room. All right?