Basic English Grammar: HAD, DIDN’T HAVE, DID _____ HAVE?

Hello. My name's Ronnie. I have a hippo, or the long word is "hippopotamus", but you don't

need to worry about saying the whole word. Just say "hippo". I have a hippo. And if you

saw my last video on using the verb "have", you know it's confusing. It's an irregular

verb, so when we use "he", "she", or "it", we have to change it to "has". But if we say

"I", "you", "we", or "they", we have to use just the base and say "have". So, "I, you,

we, they have" in the present tense, "he", "she", and "it has" in the present tense.

Be careful of the negative, too. We have to use the auxiliary verb "don't have" with "I",

"you", "we", and "they", and then "doesn't have" with "he", "she", and "it". So, you

might want to go back and review that lesson or check it out here.

The important thing to remember is that we're only going to use "have" and "has" in the

present tense with a noun at the end of the sentence. We're not going to use a verb like

an action word. We're not going to use an adjective like showing emotion. So, I can

say something like "I have a hippo", "she has a marker", that's okay.

Now, what we didn't get into in the other lesson was the past tense. Okay, so the past

tense of "have" and "has", it's easy. Yes, yes, yes, it's so easy, it's so cool. We don't

have to worry about "I", "you", "we", "they", "he", "she", "it", "he", "she". We're just

going to use "had". So, it does not matter the subject. Any subject you want, yes, we're

only always going to use "had". So, "he had", "she had", "I had". That's easy. The negative,

now this is where a lot of learners of English, of this crazy language get confused because

when we talk about the negative, we have to use again the auxiliary verb, but the auxiliary

verb is going to be in the past, in the negative, and we're going to say "didn't have". A lot

of the time, people say "she didn't had". "Didn't had" is not correct. We have to use

the base verb again, so that's why it's important to review this so we know how to do this.

What happens in English is when we use the past tense, the auxiliary verb is going to

tell us what time it is. What time is it? The past verb is going to tell us if it's

past, present, or future. The auxiliary verb is going to tell us. So, "didn't have". Be

careful. Don't say "didn't have", "has". You have to say "didn't have", not "didn't had".

See? Even I'm confusing it. So, example. "I had a hippo." "She didn't have a hippo."

And we can't forget the question. It's always important to know how to ask someone a question.

When we use the past tense, again, we have to use the base verb, even though it's past.

I know. You want to think, "Oh, did someone had". That's wrong. So, we have to say "did"

the subject. So, for example, I can say "he". "Did he have a hippo?" And at the end of a

question in English, always raise your voice to make it sound like a question. So, the

intonation would be, "Did she have a pizza?" Always make it go up to let the person know

that you're asking a question. So, the simple past of the verb "have" is a little bit easy

because we don't have to change it for "he", "she", and "it". We just use "had", but be

careful with the negative. We have to use "didn't have".

Okay, let's go through some examples of using "have" in the past. So, it's very, very common

that people will ask you questions about possessing something or having something. That's how

we use the verb. So, they will say, "Ronnie, did you have a hippo?" And I would say, "Yes,

I had a hippo." I can say, "Did they have a plant?" And the person can say, "Oh, you

know what? They had a plant, but it died." Another example, I can say, "Did it have a

pea?" So, this is kind of funny because a pea is a letter, right? "Did it have a pea?"

In the letter, in the word. Again, you can say, "Yes, it had a pea." Or in the negative,

how would you say it in the negative? You would say, "It didn't have a pea." Good. We

can say "he" and "she" and "it", right? So, "Did she have a painting?" This is a painting.

I didn't paint this. It's okay. And I can say, "Oh, yeah, yeah. She or he had a painting."

Let's try the next question. I want you to use the subject "I", and let's use this. This

is a marker. So, you can say, "Did I have a marker?" "Huh? Who are you talking to?"

You are talking to yourself. That's okay. Say, "Uh-oh. Did I have lunch today?" "Oh,

I didn't have lunch today." "Did you have lunch today?" If you want to answer in the

positive, you can say, "Yes, yes, yes. I had lunch today." Let's do one more example. We

can use "we". So, "we" is a group of people, one or two or three or 100 people, including

yourself. So, I can say, "Oh, did we have a good time?" "Oh, we didn't have a good time?"

"Oh, we did. Yeah. We had a good time." All right. Thank you. Bye.