Tag: have got grammar

The verb HAVE GOT is used mainly in British English and in many British textbooks it is taught immediately after the verb TO BE. I think it complicates things a bit for learners, and therefore, I wanted to make it a bit simpler for my students.

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In this post, you will find an infographic explaining the creation of short answers. Moreover, there is a simple worksheet which teaches the creation of questions with the verb HAVE GOT. At the end, you will find a simple speaking activity to practise the questions and short answers.
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[showmyads] In this post, we suppose that your students already know how to form the affirmative sentences with the verb HAVE GOT, as we explained those in the previous posts. You can find a simple rhyme to teach the affirmative forms of the verb HAVE GOT here and the infographic with all the forms here.

Print the following worksheet and ask your students to find out how to make questions from the affirmative sentences. If they hesitate, explain that they should stick to the colours. In my experience students quickly find the way to form the questions.

Once they finish, check their answers.
Display the following infographic and hand out the printed worksheets. Explain, how the infographic works using the questions from the worksheet above. Ask the students to follow your explanation with their fingers.

The first question from the worksheet above is: Have you got a cat.
Elicit what word the question starts with. (“Does it start with HAVE or HAS?”) Point to the words HAVE and HAS. Students answer HAVE.
“Is it followed by YOU AND …?” Students answer NO.
“Is it followed by YOU …?” Students answer YES. (do not forget to point).
“Then the answer is either ´Yes, I have.´ or ´No, I haven´t.´” (Point)
Ask a student to come to the board and do the same with the second question. Do the same with the third question. Then ask the students to work on their own and write the possible answers below the questions.
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[showmyadsa] Verb HAVE GOT – pdf file Print the following questions and give each pair one copy. The student who holds the copy reads the questions aloud and the other one answers. After three minutes, they swap their roles.

1. Have you got an English book?
2. Have you got a dictionary?
3. What have you got in your bag?
4. What have you got in your pocket?
5. Have you got a pet?
6. What pet have you got?
7. What have you got in your pencil case?
8. Have you got a watch?
9. Where have you got your keys?
10. Have you got an exercise book?
11. Have you got a red pen?
12. Have you got a car?
13. Have your parents got a house?
14. Have your parents got a car?
15. Have you got a mobile phone?
16. Has your mother got long hair?
17. Has your father got blue eyes?
18. Has your mother got fair hair?
19. Have you got a computer?
20. Have you got a television in your bedroom?

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For an unknown reason many elementary textbooks teach HAVE GOT at the very beginning. Students find it difficult and they get confused. Moreover, they get even more fed up when they learn that the Americans do not use this form.
But I have to teach the grammar, so there is no use crying over spilt milk. To be honest, I was not very successful the last time I taught this grammar, and that is why I decided to create some new materials.
In this post you will find a song, an infographic, a worksheet with communicative activities, and an interactive online quiz.

Start the lesson with the following song. Ask the students to listen and complete the lyrics. Check their answers and ask the students to listen and sing along. In this way they will practise their pronunciation and grammar at the same time.
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Have got song lyrics

Now draw the students’ attention to the following infographic. Explain the form of the verb have got. This may be the right time to drill the form.

Once you have explained the grammar, it is time to practise it using the following worksheet. Download it and print it out.

Have got communicative worksheet

Ask the students to work in pairs. They must not show their pictures to their partners.
In the first exercise they look at their picture and write what they have in the bag.
In the second exercise they write questions asking whether their partner has the same things in their bag . When the students finish writing their questions, they work in pairs and ask and answer in pairs.
In the third exercise, the students look at their bags. Then they look at the objects on the right. They ask their partner whether Jane or David has these things in their bags. They tick or cross out the objects in their pictures.

The following quiz can be taken at school or you canask your students to do it at home.
In the first part, the students should write correct sentences about the pictures using HAVE GOT. If they produce enough correct sentences, they will be able to play the game called Angry Farmer.
In the second part of the quiz they should first match the pictures and the words and then write them. In the last part of the quiz they have to write the correct answers. Again, if the students pass the quiz they will be rewarded with a game. This time they should write the words they see in the picture (of course, in English).

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[showmyadsa] Have got online quiz – full screen

I have changed jobs and now I teach at elementary school. And even though I think that I am an experienced teacher I have never taught students with actual learning problems. Now I do, and I face real challenges. For example, this week I taught the verb HAVE GOT from the Project 1 textbook, and I failed to teach anything at all. When I asked my students to complete the green table with the correct forms, there was no reaction. And when I asked them to transform the affirmative sentences into negative ones, there was just one student who could do this.
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[showmyads] At that moment, I realised that I have to teach them differently. So I created the following materials to help my students learn to use the verb HAVE GOT in affirmative and negative sentences. I hope I will be more successful this time, and that you will find these materials helpful too.

First I tried my usual graphic presentation with all the forms in a colourful table. This works great with gifted children. However, it did not work with my weak students:

As I write above, table like this was very good for talented students but not for the pupils with learning problems. They need something else. But what?
When we wrote a test on vocabulary 75% of them were able to learn all the words correctly. So why not teach them the verb and its forms as a vocabulary item. No fine deduction just a crude memory work. I believe that is the way. So I have created the following graphical presentations.

Ask your students to learn the forms by heart. Then ask them to use the phrases and write sentences to the pictures. If this proves too difficult write the five sentences randomly on the board and ask them to match them to the pictures and copy them.
Work in the same way with the negative sentences. In this way the students might comprehend the logic behind the forms or they will just remember the phrases and thus be able to use them.

I usually give only a game or two here, but this time I see it necessary to offer a few activities the students could do in a classroom without the interactive whiteboard. Moreover, from my experience these children are not very good at the computer games and the quickly lose interest in them.
The first activity is called MT Board. I have create the following worksheet. At the top there is a table with the mother tongue sentences (the sentences are in Czech, so you have to change this one if you are not Czech). Below it there is the same table with the English sentences. Cut the English sentences along the lines and leave the mother tongue board intact. Ask the students to work in pairs and give them the Mother Tongue board and the English pieces. Ask them to place the pieces on the
board. Check their answers.

Board_push_have got
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[showmyads] The second activity is called a pair card. Print out the following worksheet and cut it in the middle (from top down not from side to side). Ask the students to work in pairs. Each student gets 8 completed sentences and 8 sentences with gaps. Students read (they must not write anything) their gapped sentences and complete them with the correct forms of the verb HAVE GOT. Their partner listens and checks or corrects their answers (He/she has the full sentences). Once they finish they can swap their cards and start again.

Have got_paircards

The last classroom activity is a drill. Once you feel that your students got the hang of the grammar, you can play the following recording. The native speaker will say the subject and the students have to supply the correct form of the verb HAVE GOT in the pause. Each pause is followed by the correct form and another subject.

To download the file, right-click the following link and choose the option SAVE AS…
Have got_mp3 drill
And finally here are the games for people who like to play them either on the interactive whiteboards, desktops or their mobile devices.
The game is called Basketball. This game is in flash and it will play only on your desktop.
Your task is to choose the correct form and then score a basket.

Have got – basketball