The Major Difference Between Has and Had.
The Major Difference Between Has and Had: In English Language, sentence construction is the arrangement of words, phrases, and clauses in a sentence.
The linguistic capacity or importance of a sentence depends on this structural organization, which is also called syntax or syntactic structure. So in this article, we will show you the major difference between has and had.
A sentence is made of a clause or at least two clauses containing a subject which is typically a noun phrase and a predicate which is a verb phrase.
A verb phrase is a grammatical unit which comprises an auxiliary (helping) verb preceding the main verb. It frequently contains a head verb, objects, complements, and modifiers as its dependents. It must agree with its object or subject.
Helping verbs include: is, are, be, was, were, such as, been, being, have, has, had, do, did, does, can, could, will, would, shall, should, may, must, might, etc. Some sentences are also formed with a verb and only one subject. Those verbs are called ‘’intransitive’’ verbs.
Has and Had
Even the least complicated words can be misused trying to speak English. It could be because of the similarity in spellings, pronunciation and grammatical function. These are words that we use frequently in our day by day discourse that we don’t consider, and maybe that is the motivation behind why we now and again mix them up.
Has
‘Has’ is a transitive verb because it needs a direct subject and one or more objects. So when you’re talking about someone or something in the third person singular, you need to use ‘has’, in any case of whether you’re using a noun or a pronoun. For instance, it’s right to say that she has two bikes and a car.
Examples:
- The busy dog has no time for play.
- The company has created job opportunities.
- The School has to issue a letter of apology to the victim.
- She has made 200 bucks off Youtube videos.
- Her father has a share capital in that company.
- He has an appointment with a client at 12.30.
- She has been very fast with the job.
- My mum has been to the Cafeteria twice.
- Africa has been facing a lot lately.
- Who has registered their course today?
Had
‘Had’ means to have contained, held or owned something in the past. The word is formed from a Middle English word ‘hadde’ and directly from Old English word ‘hæfde’.
This past perfect is combined with had and a past participle. The past perfect shows an action that was completed in the past before another action took place.
‘Had’ is often used when the incident happened in the past. However, to form the past perfect, use ‘had’ and the past participle of a verb in one part of the sentence. The regular past tense is often used in the other part of the sentence.
Example:
- Certainly he had been eating all her food.
- All these people had signed up for the course and paid the fees.
- Would he ever outgrow the things papa had taught him?
- My sister had to beg the little girl to stop fighting.
- But it has been a long time since she has had any sleep, and she is tired.
- He had pulled over and destroyed every crop in that farm.
- The teacher rang after we had left the house.
- I had a bus three years ago.
- We had to bury the old woman properly.
- However, he had the third key in his pocket.
The Major Difference Between Has and Had
1. The word ‘Has’ is the third person singular present tense of the verb ‘have’ whereas ‘had’ is the past tense of ‘Have’.
2. ‘Has’ and ‘Have’ are imitative of the word ‘have’ used to show preference or necessity, with adverbs, adjectives, and phrases of comparison.
3. ‘Has’ can also be used in Present Perfect Continuous Tense. ‘Had’ can’t be used in that situation.
Example:
She has been finishing his homework for three hours.
4. ‘Has’ is also used with singular nouns. It goes with the pronoun ‘he’ ‘she’ ‘it’.
Example:
He/She/It has slept.
5. ‘Had’ is also a simple past tense and past participle of ‘have’ while ‘had’ is used to represent a certain action that happened in the past.
6. If “had” is used with another verb, it means it occurred in the past:
Example:
She had been drunk (past)
He has had a girlfriend (past).
7. ‘Had had’ is the past perfect form of ‘have’ when it is used as a main verb to narrate our experiences and actions.
Example:
He sacked her before she had had an opportunity to explain herself.
8. ‘Has Been’ indicates Present Perfect Tense.
Example:
He has been to Africa once.
9. ‘Has’ can also be used with Present Perfect Tense.
Example:
He has finished cleaning the house.
She has finished her homework.
10. ‘Had’ is also used before the main verb in a sentence.