Saturday, February 21, 2009

Note to self: [1]

Have, has, have, had.. had had! Been... have been. Etc..

They piss me off. I don't know when is the right time to use each one of them! I can write a whole paragraph or story beautifully, but my grammar skills hit the brakes eachtime I stumble upon them.

These are forum messages, websites, whatever I stumbled upon. I'm gonna copy/paste them here so I can memorize them:

PRESENT TENSE
I have
you have
he has
she has
it has
we have
you have
they have

PAST TENSE
I had
you had
he had
she had
it had
we had
you had
they had

FUTURE TENSE
I will have
you will have
he will have
she will have
it will have
we will have
you will have
they will have
______________

She has had ...
He has had ...
It has had ...

= Present perfect

+

PRESENT PERFECT(from the past till the present)
I have had
you have had
he has had
she has had
it has had
we have had
you have had
they have had
__________________

What about "had had"?

- That's Past Perfect.

The Past Perfect expresses the idea that something occurred before another action in the past. It can also show that something happened before a specific time in the past. (God.. it doesn't make sense to me!)
____________________

Q: Sorry: is it right to use:
I had have...
She had has...
???

Answer: No, that's not right.
________________
"Had" is the past tense of the verb "to have".
"Has" is the present tense of the verb "to have". Third person singular.
"Have" is the present tense of the verb "to have". Except for the third person singular.

Examples: I/you/s/he/we/they had a very good holiday.
He has dark hair. I/you/we/they have a lot of money.
____________________

Have and has are present forms of the verb.
Has is used for the third person only (s/he, it has).
Had is the past tense form for all persons.

The same rules apply whether have is the main verb or an auxiliary verb:
I have a sandwich.
She has a sandwich.
She had a sandwich.
I have eaten it.
She has eaten it.
She had eaten it when I arrived.
She has had a headache for the last three years.
She has been eaten by a velociraptor.
_________

* http://www.english-zone.com/verbs/pssvchrt.html
* http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/to_be.htm

Friday, February 20, 2009

Writing

I'm gonna update this blog everyday.