“Having” + Past Participle | Advanced English Grammar

In today's video, we're going to look at a bit  of a grammar situation that for some reason  

people have a hard time with. And I'll show you why you shouldn't, because  

you've already studied this particular structure in other contexts, with other words and stuff.  

So today we're going to look at  "having" plus a past participle.  

For example, "having been", "having done",  "having played", "having finished", etc.  

So I'm going to give you a couple of examples  to start with, just to show you how we get  

to this structure to begin with, and then  I'll show you some other situations where  

it's a little bit confusing. So "Having edited his paper,  

Tom was ready to submit it." Now, first of all, keep in mind that in spoken  

English, you probably won't hear this too much.  

It's a little bit formal. It's mostly used in writing.  

But in writing, it is very  common to see this structure.  

So it's important to understand it. So first thing you need to understand is that  

"having" is just... it's basically like a reduction of a conjunction,  

a subject, and the verb. What's very important to remember is  

that this is a perfect tense, means that whatever action happened here is finished, is completed,  

in the past. Okay?  

So, "After he had edited, all  of this squeezes to this."  

And that's what the "having" means. The conjunction, "after" or "because", etc.,  

suggests that it's understood in terms of the context of the whole sentence.  

So it's also very important to understand  that when you're using this participle in  

this kind of structure, the understood subject,  like "he", must be the same as the subject  

of the next clause. You can't have this beginning with a different  

subject because people will not understand what's happening, who did what, when the  

action happened, when it finished, etc. Now, if you want to see it even simpler,  

I split the two clauses into separate sentences. "Tom finished editing his paper."  

"He was ready to submit it." These two sentences mean  

the same as this one sentence. Now, notice that I don't use "finished".  

I could say "having finished  editing" instead of "having edited".  

So "ing" here, "ed" here. Why?  

Because the "finished" is understood in the  "having", because remember, it's a complete  

action, so it's obviously he finished doing  it, he completed this process, and then we  

go to the past participle to show the  full mixture of the things, right?  

"He had edited", it becomes a past  participle squeezed into the "having".  

Now, I know this might be a little bit confusing,  but we can use this in any context as long  

as we have the same subject, right? So, "Sandy, having finished her chores,  

Sandy was allowed to go out." "Having finished her chores", because I don't have  

a verb for "choring", for example, right? There's no such thing,  

so I have to use the "finished" something. "Having finished" is basically you have twice  

completion, but because I don't have another verb for "chores", or I could say "having done  

her chores", if you want to do it that way, that would work as well.  

"Having finished her chores",  "having done her chores", etc.  

The "finished", a little bit redundant, redundant  meaning you're saying something that you don't  

need to say, it's already  understood in the "having".  

But there are situations where it can be very  confusing what is happening, so I'm going  

to show you three sentences so that you can  compare this particular structure with a simple  

participle and with a gerund, which  is where people often get confused.  

Let's look at that. Okay, so now we're going to look at a few  

more sentences, and I'll show you some areas where it can get a little bit confusing.  

So, before we get into the direct comparison,  let's look at this one just to give you another  

idea of how it could be read in two ways. Sentences with "having" can be used in two ways.  

"Having been to Spain several times,  Jim is a great person to ask for tips."  

So, this could be an adverb  clause or an adjective clause.  

Because he had been to Spain, if we're using an  adverbial, then this "having", again, suggests  

a completed action in the past, and again,  because he had been, he being Jim, so same  

subject again, and then you  can say something about him.  

So, we can use the "be" verb as well to talk  about a past experience that has completed  

in the past. But, we can read this another way, "Jim,  

who has been to Spain several times, is a great person to ask."  

So, you can also say, you can say, "Because he  had been", "Because he had been", or, "Jim,  

who has been", so, and then  I would put like a comma,  

"Who has been to Spain", sorry, "several times", comma, "is a great person".  

Both ways are okay, obviously a slightly different  connotation, but essentially the sentence  

means the same thing. One, you're saying something about Jim,  

and second one, you're saying the reason he's a good person to ask for these tips.  

Both are okay, and we'll see that again  down here when we do the comparison.  

So now, let's look at these sentences, and  this is where the confusion sometimes happens.  

"Having overseen production for several  years, Ted was ready to take over as COO."  

Right away, this was, already tells you  this whole situation is in the past.  

Automatically, you understand that  this must have had a past participle.  

After he had overseen the company for several  years, he did this, it's done, it's finished.  

Maybe he's moved on to a different position now,  and now he wants to be COO, Chief Operating  

Officer, right? He wants to run the company how it runs.  

So, in this case, it's okay. Now, you could say, "Ted, who had overseen",  

you can also make this into an adjective clause. Both are okay, slightly different meanings.  

This sentence is the confusion. "Having several years of experience overseeing  

the company's production process, qualifies Ted to be the new COO."  

So, what's the problem here? Right away, you should notice a simple  

present verb, a tense verb. So, if this is the verb,  

what is the subject that goes with this verb? I'll give you a second to read the sentence again,  

and try to understand what is the subject that agrees with this particular verb.  

Okay? Now, are you ready?  

"From here to here is all the  subject to this verb qualifies."  

So, what is all this, "having several years of  experience overseeing the company's production  

process"? A gerund, a gerund phrase.  

So, this whole gerund phrase is a subject. Notice, this is not squeezing any verbs,  

because there's no other verb around. You must have a past participle verb in order to  

make this the participial clause with "having", with a completed action in the past.  

So, make sure you understand what is  happening, and here, there's no other verb.  

There's another subject verb, a new clause. This is one clause with a gerund phrase subject,  

regular, simple, tense verb, and you go on to that.  

This one, "having several years of experience  overseeing the company's production process,  

Ted made the case for his being the COO." Here, the understood conjunction should be  

"because", "because he had several years". Now, what's going on here, this is not  

the same "having" as this "having". This means, "because he had", I'll write  

this for you, so this "had" is a past tense of "have", and it's the possessive, like he has it,  

it's his, it's his experience in his resume, for example.  

And this, again, gets reduced into a  single, simple participle, "having".  

This "had" becomes "having" and the "because"  and the subject are understood inside this  

verb. This is an  

active participle, a present participle. Here, we have the past participle with the  

"having" extension, so two different things. This is not the participle, this here is the  

participle of the main verb, so I'm not sure that's entirely clear, but always think about the  

fact that here, you have two verbs, what is happening?  

Here, you have one verb, what is happening? Here, you have no verb, what is happening?  

So, you have to remember also that a gerund  is technically a verb being used as a noun,  

so that's what makes it a little bit confusing,  and make sure you can separate the two types  

of sentences, right? Having overseen production,  

after he had overseen or because he had overseen. Having several years,  

because he had several years. Two different uses of the verb "having".  

Now, I know that this is  probably a little bit confusing,  

that's why if you go to www.engvid.com, there's a quiz, I'll give you a whole bunch  

of sentences to try to make sure you understand them, how they work, make sure you can recognize  

the different uses of "having", and if you have any questions, you can ask there as well.  

I'll be happy to answer them. So, if you like the video, please give me  

a like, don't forget to subscribe to my channel and come back next time, I'll give you some more  

grammar tips and vocab and all that fun stuff.  

See you then. Bye bye.