50 Useful Expressions and Idioms with HAVE

Words are like onions.

As you start to unwrap them,

(laughing)

you find lots over new layers.

A bit like a new wife or a new husband.

(laughing)

Ah, they make you cry too.

But in English, for example, the verb to have,

do you know what it means?

Do you know all of the layers? Really?

Well, let's find out.

(upbeat music)

Hello. This is Keith.

I run the website, the Keith Speaking Academy,

as well as this YouTube channel, English Speaking Success.

Also, you can check out my other channel to learn English

in under a minute.

Yes. English Speaking Success Shorts.

So as I'm sure you know,

some words in English are extremely common.

We use them all the time, right?

In a recent video, we looked at the verb to get

and all of the different meanings and uses of it.

Now did you know the verb to have

is the eighth, most frequent word in English.

And yet it has lots of different meanings.

When you begin learning English, you learn the basics.

But as you improve, you have to start unwrapping

and discovering the deeper meanings of these simple words.

If not, you'll never get the flexibility

you need to be a fluent and confident speaker.

Today, we're gonna have a look at some of the different uses

of the verb to have to get you that flexibility,

fluency, and confidence.

We're gonna look at have meaning possession,

have describing activities

and have in idiomatic expressions.

Let's do it.

Just a quick reminder, knowledge is not enough.

So in addition to listening to me today,

you need to be practicing your English.

You can practice on your own, but for me,

one of the best ways to practice is with a teacher.

So you can get feedback

and have somebody correcting your mistakes.

When you get feedback, it helps you to learn the words

more deeply, right?

To get to know the layers, remember the onion.

And I think one of the best platforms for practicing

with a teacher is Cambly.

If you don't know it, Cambly is an online platform,

specialized in teaching English

with native English speaking teachers.

I'm gonna tell you a lot more about that shortly

as well as some great discounts for you.

But for now, let's have a look at that verb to have.

So, first of all, we can say to have meaning to possess

or to own something, right?

It's ours, right?

For example, I have a pen.

I have a phone. I have a dog.

Oh, no I don't. I haven't got a dog.

I used to have a dog when I was younger,

but now I haven't got a dog.

It's interesting, right?

You'll notice for possession in America,

they tend to say, have, I have a pen.

In British English we tend to say, have got, I've got.

I've got a pen, right?

In the negative, well, American would be,

I have a black pen.

I don't have a blue pen.

And in British it would be, I've got a black pen.

I haven't got a blue pen.

Of course we can describe ourselves

with things that we have, right?

I have a big nose. It's true.

I have blue eyes. I have ginger hair.

Well, all right, grey hair.

Greyish, gingerish hair.

Common mistake, some people say I have got a black hair.

No, I've got black hair.

If you say I've got a black hair,

that's like one hair, right?

Now you may say in the restaurant,

oi waiter, I've got a black hair in my soup.

See the difference?

Also have, can be for describing our personality, right?

She has a bad temper.

If we say she has a bad temper,

it means that she's always angry.

Always flying off the handle. Handle?

Always flying off the handle, right?

She has a bad temper or she has a nasty temper.

On the contrary, the opposite, right?

She has a calm manner or she has a lovely manner.

And that just means that she speaks in a calm

and polite way, right?

She has a very calm manner.

You have a lovely manner.

Slightly different from to have good manners

in the plural, right?

He has good manners means he's well behaved.

She has bad manners means she's rude or impolite.

Also we can talk about sicknesses

that we have or own, right?

So if I have,

(sneezes)

I have a cold.

(coughing)

I have a cough.

I have a fever.

Oh, I have a stomach ache. Oh, I've got a headache.

Oh dear, get to the hospital.

As my mum would say to me, she says,

"Oh dear, you are in the wars."

Yeah. To be in the wars, to have lots of injuries

or sicknesses.

So that's half with possession. Let's move on.

Before I do go to the hospital.

Now a common use of to have

is when it means to do an activity.

For example, we may say to have a shower, right?

The activity, having a shower or have a wash, right?

I like to have a wash.

Notice because it's not possession

we don't say have got, no, have, right?

Have a shower, have a wash.

Other examples, have a rest.

In Spanish they have this word siesta.

Have a siesta, which we also say in English.

Have a siesta, have a rest, have a lie down, have a nap,

have a snooze, have a power nap, have 40 winks.

There are so many expressions to have arrest.

We must love resting in England.

No, it's good for you, right?

Every day I do have a siesta every day.

20 minutes, no more, no less. Perfect.

I do it religiously on a daily basis.

Also we've got have plus a noun replacing a verb.

So you may have a verb, for example, like to look.

But you can replace that with, have a look.

What's the difference?

Well, look right?

If I say, hey, look, look.

It's quite direct, right?

But hey, have a look. It's just softer.

It's a bit more inviting.

Look is the imperative. So it's a bit direct.

But have a look it's a little bit softer,

a little bit more inviting, right?

Have a look.

Are there examples, listen,

I've got some great music have a listen.

(upbeat music)

What?

Or what about this lovely pu'er tea, have a taste, right?

Yeah. Have a bite to eat.

I've got a lovely onion, have a bite.

No, thanks. Have a smell.

So you can have a have a taste, have a bite, have a smell,

have a think, have a ponder means to think.

Yeah have a ponder and let me know tomorrow.

Have a try, have a go.

Both of those meetings to try.

So if I wanna be a bit softer, go on,

yeah, have a try.

Go on, have a go.

I want to encourage my students to practice, right?

And finally, we've got meals with have.

Notice this is a common mistake.

A lot of people say I have a breakfast in the morning.

No, there's no 'a'.

I have breakfast in the morning.

I have lunch at midday and...

(stutters)

and I have dinner in the evening.

All of them without 'a'. Excellent.

We're gonna move on and have a look

at some really nice idiomatic expressions with have.

Before we do that as a quick break,

come and join me by the water cooler.

Hello. Come and join me by the water cooler.

Let's have a drink.

So I've got coffee, I've got tea, I've got water.

(laughing)

Have a look. I've got some pour tea, right?

Would you like to have a taste?

Great. Okay.

So listen, I hope you're enjoying the video

and learning lots.

We're unwrapping the word have, right?

Now, this is really good.

But what's really important is that you start practicing.

You can practice with me in the video of course,

but a great idea is to find a teacher.

And I wanna tell you a bit more about

one of my favorite platforms for teaching,

which is Cambly, right?

If you don't know Cambly they're an online platform

with native English teachers.

And when you sign up, you get to choose your teacher.

You can choose the time you want to study,

the content of the course,

and you can even record the course

so you could watch it later and playback,

and there are flexible plans for everybody.

And the most important thing to tell you today

is about the discounts.

So if you want to try out Cambly,

you can use the code in the link below,

that's Keith-yt and you can have a free 10 minutes

to try out the teacher and the platform.

And if you like it, you can get a 40% discount

when you sign up for the year plan, the 12 month plan.

For me learning a language, it's a long-term investment

and I think Cambly gives you the perfect opportunity

to invest in the longterm.

So check out the links down below

and remember to use the code Keith-yt.

Excellent. Now let's check out

some of those exciting idiomatic expressions with have.

So in this section about useful idiomatic expressions,

we're going to listen to a friend of mine, Stan,

talking about a day out he had at the cinema

with a friend of his, Tim.

What I want you to do is to listen first

and to count how many idioms with 'to have' does he use?

Here we go.

Yo, Stan the man checking in, init?

The other day, I had time to kill.

So I got in touch with my mate, Tim.

Yeah, who, it turns out, also had time on his hands.

And we decided to go to the cinema to see a new film.

Now, listen, I have a bone to pick with Tim

because he chose the last film we went to see,

and it was utter rubbish.

He doesn't have a clue when it comes

to choosing a good film.

All Tim thinks about is fast action, special effects.

He's got a one track mind, right?

So that film, right?

It was an action film with that Sylvester Stallone.

That's the one. Yeah.

Now even Tim said it was absolutely shocking.

So this time I had the upper hand, right?

I was going to choose the film.

Fortunately Tim said he was going to pay,

he has money to burn.

And that was great because cinema tickets

these days cost an arm and a leg.

Anyway, we agreed on a comedy this time and it was great.

We had a whale of a time.

Tim had a blast and he said he hadn't laughed

so much in ages.

What a lovely day.

Great. So how many idioms with to have, did you count?

Aha. Well, actually there were nine.

Let's have a look at them and just see what they mean.

So first of all, we had, to have time to kill.

So Stan said he had time to kill,

which just means to have spare time or free time

to do something.

Similarly, to have time on your hands

or Tim had time on his hands means the same,

to have free time.

Notice we can change the pronoun, right?

I have time on my hands.

Tomorrow you will have time on your hands, possibly.

Then what came up? To have a bone to pick with someone.

A bone is kind of the, obviously the bone in the body.

So a chicken has different bones,

the chicken bone, chicken on the bone, right?

So if you have a bone to pick with someone,

it means you have a reason to disagree with them

or to be angry with them.

And you'll remember, Stan was angry with Tim

because Tim had chosen such a rubbish film.

So Stan had a bone to pick with him, right?

Next. He doesn't have a clue.

Or if you're British, he hasn't got a clue.

We can use both, right?

Basically it means he doesn't know.

He doesn't have a clue about good films, right?

He doesn't know anything about good films.

Next up, to have a one track mind.

So Tim had a one track mind

because he was always thinking about the same thing.

If you're always thinking about action films,

you have a one track mind.

If you're always thinking about food,

you have a one track mind, right?

We don't say 'about' something.

We just say, he has a one track mind, right?

You're always talking about eating.

You have a one track mind.

Okay, and next, to have the upper hand.

So here, because Tim had made a mistake and he knew it,

Sam had the advantage, he could choose the film.

So to have an advantage over someone

is to have the upper hand, right?

So Stan has the upper hand this time.

Moving on. If you've got lots of money,

you've got money to burn, right?

To have plenty of money to spend.

So, apparently Tim has money to burn, right?

He has plenty of money.

And this often suggests you can spend

that money on unimportant things.

Finally, two expressions, meaning to enjoy yourself a lot,

to have a whale of a time, to have a blast.

So both Stan and Tim had a whale of a time.

And they had a blast.

That's it, nine useful expressions with to have.

Now remember just knowing these phrases

is not enough to become fluent

and a confident speaker, right?

And also to get a band seven or above in IELTS Speaking.

There's a difference between knowledge and knowing.

Knowledge is good, but knowing is important.

And by that, I mean, being able

to use these words and phrases.

And a great way to develop your knowing is to use Cambly.

Cambly is an online learning platform

and they've got native English speakers

that can help you build up your fluency and confidence.

And you can start practicing these phrases today.

And do notice that Cambly

also have some pre-prepared courses including IELTS,

that you can study and practice with your teacher.

If you want to try Cambly, there's a code in the description

below the video.

The code is Keith, KEITH - YT.

And with that code, you can get a 10 minute free class

on Cambly and if you like it, you can then sign up

for a full year plan, and get 40% discount, four zero.

Fantastic. What are you waiting for?

Get on Cambly right now and start practicing.

So listen, if you enjoyed this video,

you might want to check out this video,

which shows you lots of different meanings of the word get,

another very common English word.

You can unwrap the onion of get, right?

Please do remember, press the subscribe button,

turn on the notifications and also leave me a comment.

Tell me what are you going to have today?

(laughing)

Take care. And I will see you in a few moments

in the next video.

All right, Stan, so what you're having?

I'll have a coffee mate. So nice video that to have.

Well, yeah, it's such an important word, right?

Sure. Yeah, but the onion, what was that all about?

Well, it's a metaphor.

A meta what?

A metaphor.

It shows students how words can have different meanings

and layers.

Oh. So you're not telling students they need to eat onions.

No, Stan.

Ah, I see. I've got it, yeah.

Well, nice video mate. Yeah.

See you next time.

Cheers.