Representing being and having

Misconceptions

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Using have to describe things

To see a relevant teacher's question, click on this icon .

Students are sometime told that the verb have is used to talk about ownership, and that as a result have can only be used with a human subject. They are also advised that there is/are should be used to talk about things, such as buildings.

In one coursebook , two sentences are contrasted to illustrate this:

Mr Lee has a lot of books.

There are a lot of books in the library.

However, this does not reflect what actually happens, as sentences such as the following are common:

The Salisbury Library has 30,000 books, prints and manuscripts dealing with the history, language and culture of Wales. (Bank of English)

For further information about this, see Representing being and having: Using have and other possession verbs (p 4).