Page 16 - Oxford_English_Grammar_Course_Basic_2015

SECTION 1 be and have
have

grammar summary

be (am/are/is/was/were) be and

• We can use adjectives, nouns or expressions of place after be.
She is late. I'm hungry. Are you a doctor? Is everybody here?

• We use a special structure with be - there is - to introduce things: to say that they exist.
There's a strange woman at the door. There are some letters for you.

• Be can be an auxiliary verb in progressive tenses (see page 23) and passives (see page 94).
She is working. It was made in Hong Kong.

have (have/has/had)

• We can use have or have got to talk about possession, relationships and some other ideas.
Do you have a car? I don't have any brothers or sisters. Ann has got a headache.

• And we can use have to talk about some kinds of actions.
I'm going to have a shower. What time do you have breakfast?
• Have can also be an auxiliary verb in perfect tenses (see Section 5).
I haven't seen her all day. We knew that he had taken the money.

'And were you good while I was out?'

To be or not to be, that is the question. There's a thin man inside every fat man.

(Shakespeare: Hamlet) (George Orwell)

Is there life before death? You can have it all, but you can't do it all.

(Seamus Heaney) (Michelle Pfeiffer)

If you’ve got everything, When I was young there was no respect
you’ve got nothing. for the young, and now that I am old

(Leni MacShaw) there is no respect for the old.
(J B Priestley)

BE AND HAVE 1