Is have a verb?
Yes, “have” is a verb. It has many meanings, most of which relate to possession or relationship (e.g., “I have a blue car;” “She has two sisters”).
“Have” is an irregular verb, which means its past tense is not formed with “-ed.” Instead, the simple past tense and past participle form is “had” (e.g., “I had a dog when I was a child”).
“Have” can also act as an auxiliary verb (aka helping verb) to form perfect verb tenses:
Tense | Example |
---|---|
Present perfect | I have eaten |
Past perfect | I had eaten |
Future perfect | I will have eaten |
Present perfect progressive (present perfect continuous) | I have been eating |
Past perfect progressive | I had been eating |
Future perfect progressive | I will have been eating |
“Have” is also used as an auxiliary verb in certain conditional sentences (e.g., “If I had known you were coming, I would have bought groceries”).
QuillBot’s Grammar Checker can help you make sure you’re using “have” correctly.