Speaker 1: Hey, why don't you have yourself a cup of Joe,
grab your notebook in settle in. Today we're going to
talk about your old car that has had it and
even that old container of leftovers in the fridge. Yeah,
that has had it too. Let's dive in.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode eight twenty eight.
Cool and casual uses of have. Hello and welcome, thanks
for joining me for another episode of the Happy English Podcast.
I'm your English teacher Michael, and I'm glad you're here
because today we're going to talk about a very small
word that's used in a lot of very cool ways
in English, and that word is have. Now, I'm sure
you know that have can be used for possession, like
I have a car, or to talk about experience like
I always have a great time helping you learn English,
and of course for you grammar fans, we have have
in perfect tenses like I have seen that movie. But
today I want to go deeper. We're gonna look at
some natural, everyday expressions with have, things native speakers say
all all the time, and you'll sound great using them too.
Let's start with a fun one. Sometimes we use have
followed by a reflexive pronoun like have myself, have herself,
or have ourselves. It sounds a little old fashioned or folksy,
but people still use it in everyday speech, especially when
they're treating themselves to something nice. Like when Mark got
home from work, he had himself a glass of wine.
We could just say he had a glass of wine,
but saying he had himself a glass of wine makes
it feel more relaxing, like a reward. And then Lucy
had herself a steak dinner to celebrate her promotion. Nice, right,
she earned it. And to be honest, I think I'll
have myself a quiet evening with a good book. Tonight.
Sounds cozy, doesn't it. Now here's another use of have
that's more serious. When we use have followed by a
past participle, like had his wallet stolen or had her
suitcase damaged, we're usually talking about a bad experience that
someone suffers from, like after binge drinking at the frat party,
Leo had his stomach pumped. I hope he learned his
lesson after that. And poor Frank he had his wallet
stolen on the train. That's rough. My cousin Sam told
me that she had her suitcase damaged by the airline. Man,
don't you hate when that happens. In each of these cases,
something bad happened to the person. They didn't do the action,
they experienced it. All right, let's switch gears and talk
about a phrase that's super common. Something has had it.
If you say my old car has had it, it
means it's totally worn out, it's done. Goodbye car, It's
time for the junkyard. And then it seems that Jenny's
Windows XP laptop has had it. I'm sure it's probably
time for an upgrade. In the kitchen, that old toaster
has had it. It doesn't even brown the bread anymore.
So when an object has had it, it means it's
broken or used up or no longer useful. And guess what,
you can use this phrase to talk about people too.
If a person has had it, it means they're tired,
fed up, exhausted, like after working overtime all week, I've
had it. Dennis said that after two days of long meetings.
He has had it. Wilma wanted to go to the
gym after work, but by the time she got home
she realized she had had it. You can almost imagine
Wilma dropping her bag on the floor, flopping on the
couch and saying, nope, I've had it. No gym for
me tonight. And just like people can have had it,
so can food or plants, especially when they're in bad shape.
Like it looks like that head of broccoli in the
bridge has had it. What a waste, And like it's
been so hot and we haven't had rain in weeks.
It looks like my tomato plans have had it. And
have you ever seen the hot dogs at the convenience
store in the States, Yeah, they've definitely had it. So
if something looks gross, or it's wilted or way past
its best, it's had it. Next, here's a phrase I'm
sure you've heard in movies or TV shows or arguments
in the workplace. I've had it with This means you've
reached your limit. You can't tolerate something or someone anymore.
Like I've had it with my stupid boss. I'm gonna
quit this job, or Henry said that he's with his
noisy neighbors one more late night party and he's calling
the police. Grandma said she's had it with the cold
winters in New York. She's gonna move to Florida this year.
I've had it. It has an emotional feel, right. It
means you're totally done with something or someone. Next up,
you can have it in for someone. If someone has
it in for you, they really don't like you, and
they seem to act mean on purpose. Like when I
was in college, there was that one psychology teacher. I'm
sure she had it in for me. She never listened
to what I had to say or gave me a
chance to give my opinion in class. She totally had
it in for me. Nowadays, I think my new boss
has it in for me. She always gives me the
worst jobs. And then I had to confront the boss.
I said, Hey, do you have it in for me
or something? Why are you always criticizing my work? She
had it in for me. This one is kind of intense,
but useful, all right. That was a whole bag of
expressions with the word have, from relaxing with a glass
of wine to throwing out a gross hot dog to
yelling at your boss. Have is doing a lot of
work in English? Which one was your favorite today? By
the way, the best way to remember English like this
and any other word or phrase in English, is to
take that word or phrase you know, write it in
a sentence that's true for you or true in your world,
and then memorize your sentences. And let me say this.
You can get more practice using your English when you
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And on top of that, each episode has exercises where
you can practice this English point with speaking and writing
checked by me. To learn more, just visit Myhappy English
dot com and choose podcast lesson eight twenty eight. Remember,
learning another language is not easy, but it's not impossible,
and I'm here to help you on your journey.
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