What a Word! Part 5: Have, Has, Had

Often enough I hear uninformed people tell me that have, has, and had are passive verbs. These forms of the same verb have several meanings, but passive is not one of them. They can have meanings as individual transitive verbs or as an auxiliary verb to indicate the past, present, and future perfect tenses.  

As transitive verbs, have, has, and had can mean, among many other things:

• to possess (I have a laptop.)
• to include (The building has three apartments.)
• to be obligated (She had to go to work.)

As auxiliary verbs, have, has, and had need a past participle form of another verb to make the perfect tense:

• past perfect: I had chosen Virginia as my teammate before you did.
• present perfect: He has bought the sailboat.
• future perfect: By tomorrow, they will have worked on the job for two weeks.

The confusion of these words with passive voice is understandable. Passive voice also needs a past participle, but one that is accompanied by the verb to be (am, are, is, was, were, being, been):

• past: Virginia was chosen as my teammate.
• present: The sailboat is being bought.
• future: By tomorrow, the job will have been worked on for two weeks.

But have, has, and had are not in and of themselves passive!