English Grammar: The Past Tense of HAVE

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Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid,

and this is a lesson for English learners of all levels,

so whether you're a beginner, intermediate, advanced, or somewhere in between,

this lesson I believe will help you.

Because in this lesson I'm going to review the verb "to have" in the past tense.

Now, as you probably know because you've been speaking English, the verb "to have" is a

very important verb for two reasons.

First of all, we use it by itself for lots and lots of things.

And secondly, because we also use it not only by itself, but as a helping verb with some

of the advanced tenses.

With the perfect tenses.

But we're not going to go into that.

We're just focusing here on how to use the verb "to have" in the past tense, because

this is also something where a lot of students make mistakes, but not you after just a few minutes.

So, let's get started.

So, what is important here is that actually in English the past tense becomes very easy,

and a lot easier than many other languages.

Because with whatever subject we have you have to use only one verb.

You don't have to change the verb based on the subject.

So, in the past tense...

Remember this is not the present tense.

In the past tense the verb "to have" becomes "had".

Say it after me: "had".

So in other words, I'm going to give you a very simple sentence.

Okay? Because we're going to say it very often.

So let's keep it simple.

Always keep it simple when you're trying to learn one point; don't mix it up with lots

of other points.

Don't put hard vocabulary.

So: "I had fun.",

"You had fun.",

"They had fun.",

"She had fun.",

and "It (the cat/the dog) had fun."

Now, so you see how simple it is?

What you have to learn is that the verb "have" in a positive sentence becomes "had".

And we can use "had" with every subject.

Now, what happens when we make it negative?

This is where some students get a little bit confused because they remember this, and then

they try to put this here, but that's not the case.

What happens when we make a negative sentence and when we make a question is that we come

back to the base form of the verb.

What's the base form of our verb?

"To have", right?

So if you want to make a negative sentence, then we simply say: "I didn't have fun.",

"You didn't have fun.",

"We didn't have fun.",

"They didn't have fun."

It's basically staying the same, but we're using "have".

We're not using "had" anymore.

"He didn't have fun.", "She didn't have fun.", "It didn't have fun."

Okay? We'll just pretend there's an it.

So what's important is this "have".

Come back to the base form of the verb, but not here.

Now, the same thing will happen when we have a question.

We're going to come back to the base form of our verb.

So it's quite simple then.

"Did I have fun?"

I don't know. I think so.

"Did you have fun?", "Did we have fun?", "Did they have fun?", "Did he have fun?",

"Did she have fun?", "Did it have fun?"

Now, that's basically it.

It's not more complicated than that.

Remember that in the positive sentences we use "had", and after that come back to the

base form, but use "did" or "didn't".

Now, just to review, this "didn't have" stands for

"did not". Okay?

But usually in conversation we don't say: "He did not have fun."

We just say: "He didn't have fun."

That's the contraction, the short form.

And here we can use the word "did" and that's what we usually use, and it's important to

We can't just say: "You have fun?"

That would be wrong.

Okay? So remember to put "did" in there.

You could also, by the way, ask a negative question.

So you could say: "Didn't you have fun? I thought you would love that movie."

So you could ask a negative question.

But if that's confusing to you, don't worry about it. Okay?

You don't have to do it.

And the other thing to remember is that when we add a question word, we still keep this order.

What do I mean?

For example: "When did they...?"

Okay? "When did they have the meeting?"

"Where did they have the meeting?"

Right? So whether it's saying: "When? Where?

Who did they meet?"-right?-we're still keeping this construction.

We're just adding a question word before that.

Okay, now what you do to make sure that you know it is that you run through this very

slowly to make sure that you can do it, so that's what we will do together.

First we'll make a positive sentence, which you know is easy because no matter what the

subject is you're going to say "had".

Then we'll make it negative, and then we'll make a question out of it.

And practice it with me so that then you can do it by yourself.

"George had a lot of friends."

In the past. We're using the past.

"George had a lot of friends."

Make it negative:

didn't have"-good-"a lot of friends".

Make it a question:

"Did George have a lot of friends?

Did George have a lot of friends?"

Now, George, of course, is like "he".

Next: "My family and I"-in the past-

"had a great holiday".

Make it negative: "My family and I

didn't have a great holiday.",

"Did my family and I have a great holiday?

I don't know. It's hard to say."

"Did we have...?"

The next one: "The bookstore

had a big sale."

Negative: "The bookstore

didn't have a big sale."

"Did the bookstore have a big sale?"

Positive, negative, question.

You should be able to move smoothly through it.

All right? That's why we're doing it.

Number four: "Mrs. Williams

didn't have a party."

Good. I heard you.

Negat-... Question:

"Did Mrs. Williams have a party?"

Five: "His students

had many exams."

Negative: "His students

didn't have any exams."

And questions...

"Did his students have many exams?"

You're getting it.

And the last one here: "The hotel

had a business centre.", "The hotel"-negative-

"didn't have a business centre".

"Did the hotel have a business centre?"

Really, really good.

So now, this is what you can do to really master the verb "to have" in the past tense.

First, go to our website at www.engvid.com and there, you can do a quiz on this subject.

Second, make it your own.

What does that mean?

These are my examples.

Here and in the quiz, I wrote those examples.

But the best way for you to remember it is to actually come up with your own examples

about your life.

And when you're coming up with those examples, try to keep these rules in mind.

Come up with a simple sentence first, especially if you're a beginner or intermediate.

You want to keep the focus on these verbs and not on lots of extra vocabulary.

If you're more advanced, then you can add on extra vocabulary as well, and that's good practice.

But otherwise keep it simple.

Use all three forms. Right?

This, the positive, the negative, and the question.

And also, again, control the vocabulary.

Okay? Don't get confused by the vocabulary.

Make it more advanced as you progress with your English, but keep this strong because

this verb "to have" is going to give you a very strong basis for...

For the basic sentences where we're using "had", and also for those advanced tenses,

the perfect tenses which you need later on.

Okay? So mastering this is a really important step.

So when you're making your own examples, you could say something like:

"I had a good time"-okay?-"at the party last night".

Or: "I had an iPhone. Now I have an Android."

Or: "I had a desktop. Now I have a laptop."

Okay? I don't know.

Whatever is about your life.

Okay? Make some examples that talk about you and what you had,

and what you didn't have, and

what you... And then make it a question. Okay?

Keep playing with it. Play with it.

The more you play with it, the more fun you'll have; and the more fun you have, the better

you'll remember, and then the happier you'll be and the better your English will get.

Thanks very much for watching,

and don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel to keep on improving your English.

Good luck with your English. Bye.