Have or had? | Britannica Dictionary (2024)

Have or had?

Saravan asked, "When should we use have and when should we us had?

Thank you for asking this question.

As a main verb, use have/has for the present tense and had for the past tense, as shown in these examples:

• I have a muffin and a cup of coffee.
• Yesterday I had a piece of toast and a cup of tea.

• My mother didn't have time to cook.
• Now she isn't working, and she has lots of time to cook.

But have/has is also used as an auxiliary or linking verb with the perfect tenses. These tenses are used to describe situations or events that began in the past and continued until the present, with have/has:

• Tricia has been standing on the corner waiting for an hour. (She's still waiting.)

or to describe an event that began at an earlier time in the past and continued until a later moment, also in the past, with had:

• By the time he finally arrived, Tricia had been standing on the corner for an hour. (At a point in the past, she started waiting. She waited for an hour, and then he arrived. She's not waiting anymore.)

Note that when have/has/had are auxiliary verbs, they are frequently contracted in informal English, especially with pronouns:

• I've called you three times today! (I've = I have)
• We'd been roommates and best friends for two years. (We'd = We had)
• Maya's been a good student all year. (A contraction with a noun + have/has/had is much more common in speech than in writing.)

I hope this helps.

Link to this page: