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Have got and Has got in English (A1)

Have got and has got are common in British English for talking about what people own, their family and their features. This lesson shows the correct forms for each person, plus negatives and questions.

Have got is the everyday British English way of talking about possession, relationships, illnesses and physical characteristics. I have got a car, She has got two brothers, He has got a headache. The meaning is identical to plain have, but the structure is different, and mixing the two produces one of the most persistent A1 errors.

The critical point is that have got is not the present perfect and has nothing to do with the past. Got here carries no meaning of receiving or obtaining — it is simply part of a fixed present-tense structure. I have got a bike means I own a bike right now, not that I acquired it at some point.

Because have is the auxiliary in this structure, questions and negatives are formed by moving or negating have itself: Have you got a pen? and I haven't got a pen. You never use do or does with have got, which is exactly where learners slip. Plain have, by contrast, does take do — and that difference is the whole lesson.

How to form Have got and Has got

Have got in all three forms, with the contractions that dominate in speech.
FormStructureExample
Affirmative (I/you/we/they)have got / 've gotI've got two sisters.
Affirmative (he/she/it)has got / 's gotShe's got a new job.
Negativehaven't got / hasn't gotWe haven't got a garden.
QuestionHave/Has + subject + gotHave you got the tickets?
Short answerYes, I have. / No, I haven't.Has he got a car? — Yes, he has.
Pasthad (no got)I had a bike when I was ten.

Have got and Has got: the key rules

  1. Have got expresses possession: I/you/we/they have got; he/she/it has got.

    I've got two sisters. She's got a new laptop.

  2. Negatives are haven't got / hasn't got.

    We haven't got a car. He hasn't got any homework today.

  3. Questions invert have/has: Have you got…? Has she got…?

    Have you got a pen? — Yes, I have.

  4. Have got means the same as have; have got is more common in British speech, plain have in American English.

    I've got a headache. = I have a headache.

When to use Have got and Has got

have got vs. have

Both are correct and mean the same thing. What changes is the structure of questions and negatives — and the register.

have got — informal, mainly British

Uses have as the auxiliary. No do or does anywhere. Very common in speech.

Have you got a pen? I haven't got any change.

have — neutral, standard everywhere

Uses do or does as the auxiliary. Preferred in American English and in formal writing.

Do you have a pen? I don't have any change.

Have got and Has got in example sentences

Have got and Has got in a real conversation

Notice that got never appears in the short answers, and that do and does are completely absent.

Receptionist:Have you got a reservation?

Guest:Yes, I have. It's under Novak.

Receptionist:Here it is. Have you got any luggage?

Guest:Just this bag. Has the room got wifi?

Receptionist:It has, yes. But it hasn't got a balcony, I'm afraid.

Guest:That's fine. I've got everything I need.

Common mistakes (and how to fix them)

Practice questions

  1. I ___ a new bicycle. It is bright red.
    has gothave gotgot
  2. She ___ three younger brothers and a baby sister.
    have gothas gotis got
  3. ___ you got any money in your wallet right now?
    HaveHasDo

Practise Have got and Has got today

The fastest way to fix this structure is to practise questions, where the error usually appears.

  1. Write six sentences about your possessions and family using have got and has got.
  2. Correct these: Do you have got a car? — She have got a dog. — He hasn't got no money.
  3. Ask five questions about a partner's family, all beginning Have you got.
  4. Rewrite all five questions using Do you have instead, and compare the structures.

Have got and Has got: frequently asked questions

Is have got the same as the present perfect?

No, despite looking identical. Have got is a fixed present-tense structure meaning possess, and got carries no separate meaning at all. The genuine present perfect of get means received or obtained and usually appears with a time reference: I have got a letter from the bank this morning. Context and the presence of a time expression normally make the difference obvious, and in practice the possession meaning is far more common.

Can I use have got in American English?

Americans understand it perfectly and use it in speech, but they use plain have with do-support far more often: Do you have a car? rather than Have you got a car? American English also uses have gotten as the past participle of get, which British English does not. If you are learning American English, prefer plain have; if British, have got will make you sound more natural.

What is the past of have got?

Simply had, with no got: I had a bicycle when I was a child. The form had got exists but means something different — it is the past perfect of get, meaning had obtained. For talking about past possession, always use had alone. Questions and negatives in the past use did: Did you have a car then? and I didn't have a car.

Why do we say I've got a headache rather than I have a headache?

Both are correct, and both are used. Have got is simply the more idiomatic choice in British English for temporary physical states and common illnesses, and it is what you will hear most often in a pharmacy or a doctor's surgery. I have a headache is perfectly natural too, and is the standard form in American English and in formal or written contexts.

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