Personal Pronouns Vs The Primary Auxiliary, 'Have'

It is an undeniable fact that so many learners of English don't know how to match the personal pronouns with the auxiliary and lexical verbs and consequently, causing a disagreement between the subject and the verb in a sentence.

In a meeting I attended yesterday, while the secretary was reading the minutes of the previous meeting, she said, 'She have agreed to pay the money.' Please note the italicised words, 'she have.' She said that repeatedly perhaps because of ignorance, so today, I will be teaching you how to match the personal pronouns with the auxiliary verb, 'have.'

Check the table below to know these personal pronouns and their plural forms.

Now let me briefly explain the diagram. 

From the diagram, we have the following:

• The first person singular----'I'
• The second person singular---'You'
• The third person singular----'He/She/It.

Now check out the plural forms of the above:

• The first person plural----'We' which is the plural form of 'I'
• The second person plural----'You.' 'You' is fixed; it remains 'you' either in its singular form or plural form.
• The third person plural----'They' which is the plural form of 'He/She/It.'

All the personal pronouns mentioned above are subjective case, that is, they only occupy the subject position  in a sentence.

Examples:

1.  I  am eating.

     S.      V

2. You are eating.

     S.         V

3. He/She/It is eating.

          S.             V

Plural forms

1. We are eating.

       S.       V

2.  You are eating.

        S.        V

3.  They are eating.

         S.       V

In the examples given above, you will see that these pronouns occupy the subject position.

From the diagram, you will also notice that we have personal pronouns occupying the object position in a sentence. They also have their singular and plural forms just like the pronouns occupying the subject position in a sentence.

Their singular forms are: 'me, you & him/her/it' while the plural forms of the singular forms are: 'us, you & them.'

Examples:

1 He slapped me

    S.      V.     O

2. I slapped them.

    S.     V.      O

3. I slapped you. Etc.

    S.    V.      O

Now let's go to the business of the day.

For the purpose of this tutorial, we shall be looking at the personal pronouns that can only occupy the subject position in a sentence. These pronouns are also known as 'subjective case.' As stated in the diagram, they include: 'I, you, he/she/it, we, you & they.'

Now let's see how to match these personal pronouns with the auxiliary verb, 'Have.'

The auxiliary 'have' has four different forms: 'have, has, having & had.' 

HAVE

'Have' can go with the first person singular and plural pronouns (I & We), the second person singular and plural pronoun (You) and the third person plural pronoun (They).

Examples:

1.    I have...

2.    We have...

3.    You have...

4.    They have..

HAS

'Has' is the -s form of the verb 'have' and it can only go with the third person singular pronouns (he, she & it).

Examples:

• He has...
• She has...
• It has...

HAD

'Had' is the past tense and past participle tense form of the verb 'have' and it can go with all the personal pronouns that can function as subject in a sentence. It is only used when referring to the past.

Examples:

• I had five books last year.
• We had five...
• You had five...
• She/he/it had five...
• They had five...

'Had' can also be used after 'have'. When 'had' is used after 'have', it is no longer regarded as the past form of 'have' but the past participle of 'have'. In other words, the past participle form of 'have' is used after the verb 'have'.

Examples:

I have had enough of this nonsense.

He has had...