How To Use Have, Has And Had In English | Beginner English Vocabulary/Grammar

Have, has, had.  Which one do I use?  What do they mean?  Let’s find out! 

What’s up guys my name is Shane and today we are talking about have, has and had.  This is very important vocabulary that is very easy to learn.  And make sure you watch until the end of the video so you understand how to make questions and negatives as well.  Okay let’s get started. 

Have and has

Have and has.  Have and has have exactly the same meaning but we use them with different nouns.

With have, we use it like this.  I have, you have, we have, they have, john and Paul have, the dogs have. 

So as you can see, normally we use have with plural nouns, with two or more. 

With has, we use it like this.  He has, she has, it has, the dog has, shane has.  As you can see, we normally use has with singular nouns. A singular noun is one thing.  For example – he, she it. 

But when we use had, we can use had with any noun.  I had, you had, they had, he had, john had, the dogs had, the dog had.  You can use had with any pronoun.  So just remember, normally have with plural, has with singular and had with singular and plural. 

Have and has meaning

Have has and had have many meanings but the most common meaning is to own something. 

For example, I have a phone.  It’s mine.  It’s my phone.  I own it right now.  I am talking about right now in the present. 

Let’s look at another example, but this time, with has.  He has a phone.  He has a phone.  It’s his phone, it’s not my phone.  It’s his phone.  He has it right now in the present. 

So just remember have and has are talking about to own something right now in the present. 

Had meaning

What about had?  If I say he had a phone, does he have a phone now?  No he doesn’t.  Had means you own something in the past, it’s already finished. 

What about this one?  They had a car.  Do you they have a car now?  No they don’t.  Had means in the past they had a car but now, they do not have a car. 

So just remember, had is talking about in the past, it is finished, it’s not now. 

Negatives and questions

What about negatives and questions?  Let’s look at this example.  You have a phone.  What if we want to say, no, no phone.  We can say you don’t have a phone.

So when we want to turn it into a negative, we say don’t have.  You don’t have a phone, I don’t have.  They don’t have. We don’t have. 

What about if you want to make it into a question, you can say do you have a phone? Do you have a phone? 

What about this one?  He has a phone.  He has a phone.  How can we say no, no phone. We can say, he doesn’t have a phone.  He doesn’t have a phone.  We don’t say has.  We say doesn’t have a phone,.  He doesn’t have.  She doesn’t have. It doesn’t have. John doesn’t have.

Okay, what about a question?  We can say does he have a phone?  Does he have a phone?  Does she have a phone?  Does it have a phone?  Does john have a phone? 

So in summary, we say, I have, I don’t have, do I have? 

He has, he doesn’t have, does he have? 

Okay now what about had? Let’s look at this example.  He had a phone.  How do we say no, no phone? We can say he didn’t have a phone.  He didn’t have a phone. 

What about a question?  We can say did he have a phone?   Did he have a phone? 

Let’s look at one more example – they had a phone.  How do we say no, no phone?  We say they didn’t have a phone.  They didn’t have a phone.  What about the question?  Did they have a phone?  Did they have a phone?

So just remember with had, we say, he had, he didn’t have and did he have. 

And that it is for today. If you would like some extra practice, look in the description and you will see some sentences that have missing words.  Fill in those words with has, have, had, don’t, do, whatever you think is the right word and when you’ve finished, post your answers in the comments. And if you haven’t subscribed already, make sure you subscribe to the channel so you don’t miss any video that can help you understand English like a native speaker.  And if you enjoyed the video, please hit like and share this with your friends. And for more English, follow my Instagram and my facebook and I will see you in the next video.