We Have Got a Problem with “We Have Got”

Many learners I know have got problems with “I have got”. For some it’s the form of the construction; for others the tense; but for most the problem is “what’s the difference between “have got” and “have”???????


Good question!


I have a headache / I have got a headache


I don’t have a car / I haven’t got a car


Do you have to go? / Have you got to go?


What’s the difference???


In some grammar books the authors bend over backwards (<- idiom = try very hard) to find a difference; I think some even invent differences!!


Here is my solution:


I have and I have got mean the SAME!


Now, that is not so difficult, is it?


What I have noticed is that people use I have got more in Britain and not so much in USA.


The form of I have etc is the same as any normal verb – see: Present Simple / Past Simple etc.


So we say:


I have … / he has …


I don’t have … / he doesn’t have …


Do you have …? / Does he have …?




The form of I have got etc is the same as the Present Perfect.


So we say:


I have got … / he has got …


I haven’t got … / he hasn’t got …


Have you got …? / has he got …?


This means it is maybe a little more complicated than I have. Also we normally don’t use I have got in the past tense:


I have got a meeting at 10 today (present of have got)


I had a meeting at 10 yesterday (past of have)


In my courses I tell people that it is enough to know that have got exists and that people use it but – and this is the GOOD NEWS – you don’t need to use it and therefore you don’t really need to learn it!!


Just use have and that’s enough!


English is Easy! does it again!!

What Are You Doing??!! (Present Continuous)

English children probably first experience the Present Continuous when their mother or father come into the room and find them drawing on the wall or cutting the cat's fur or generally making a mess...

"Oh my goodness...what are YOU doing???!!!"

The construction is also a bit of a mess! You use 'to be' as the auxiliary verb and then the '-ing' form of the main verb.

e.g.
I am reading 'English is Easy'.
Are they learning vocabulary?
She is not listening to you.

Here is a table with the different forms:

Positive:

I am you, we, they are he, she, it is

VERB + ing

Negative:

I am you, we, they are he, she, it is

NOT

VERB + ing

Questions:

Am I Are you, we, they Is he, she, it

VERB + ing...?

Now, the main problem is, when do we use this tense?

All the examples above tell you about something which is happening at the moment, i.e. NOW!

So, right now I could say, "I am sitting in front of my PC at the moment."

If I go into the kitchen to make a coffee then I cannot say that because at that moment I am not sitting in front of my PC - I am standing in the kitchen.

Just why we English need a special tense for things which are happening right now I don't know but we do!

We use the Present Simple for things which go on all the time or every day or sometimes...i.e. general things and the Present Continuous for things happening right now.

My friend John is a smoker. So, have a look at these conversations:

YOU: Does John smoke? (Present Simple)

ME: Yes, he does.

(Because we are talking about a general situation)

YOU: Is John smoking? (Present Continuous)

ME: I don't know, he isn't here at the moment.

(because we are talking about a situation NOW)

If you don't have a special tense like this in your language (and you probably don't) I'm afraid you will make lots of mistakes until you get the feeling for it. So when you read a text and find a present continuous stop for a moment and try and work out why the writer has used it and slowly you will get the idea!

Finally, a question to think about; if you are in a room with an Englishman or woman and you ask:

Is it raining?

What do you think they do ??

If You Don't Know Me By Now...(First Conditional)

In the 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' the characters often talk about the 'interconnectedness' of everything. If a butterfly flaps its tiny wings in Asia today there will be a hurricane tomorrow in the West.

Things are connected... if I miss my train tomorrow, I will be late for work... and if I am late for work, the boss will shout at me...

Ok, before we go on just think for a moment how you would say that in your language...think about the verbs and which form and which tense you use..

It's like one domino knocking down the next one...and so on...isn't it? Ok, so in these sentences there is a condition...and it comes in the "if" part of the sentence ('if' clause):

If I miss my train, I will be late for work..

If I catch my train, I will be on time...

If you read English is Easy, you will learn English...

Life is full of situations like this and I bet you make these kind of sentences lots of times every day. Because there is a conditon in the 'if' clause, these sentences are called conditional sentences.

In this case the First Conditional (there are second and third conditionals and even a general conditional - but we will worry about them later).

Right, how do you make a First Conditional in English?

You just need a simple present in the 'if' clause and a simple future in the other part (the main clause).

If it rains (simple present) at the weekend, I will stay (simple future) at home

It can be negative too:

If it doesn't rain (simple present negative) on Saturday, we will go out (simple future) for the day.

They can also be the other way round when the 'if'' clause comes second:

I will throw my PC out of the window, if it doesn't stop crashing...

Listen out for this grammar in songs...it comes quite often:

...if you don't know me by now, then you will never ever know me...

If you have an English teacher, maybe he or she will sing it for you!!

To Be...

...at this point someone always says, "...or not to be!" So, I will not disappoint you.

We looked at personal pronouns - basic building blocks for a sentence - and now we need to look at "to be"; the basic verb.

It must have been great for the caveman or woman who first invented "to be". So far they could only say:

I cold...you cold? Weather terrible!

With "to be" they could now say:

I am cold...are you cold? Isn't the weather absolutely terrible!

"To be" is a little irregular, maybe because it is so old.

The positive looks like this:

I	am
you, we, they	are
he, she, it	is

The negative is the same with a "not" stuck on the end:

I am you, we, they are he, she, it is

NOT

To ask a question with "to be" just turn the positive forms around:

Am	I...?
Are	you, we, they...?
Is	he, she, it...?

That's it! Those are all the present forms. The other tenses are coming soon...

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