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I am studying English and I want to know the main difference between “Have you got?” and “Do you have?” questions. Are they the same? Is one more formal than the other?

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5 Answers 5

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Contrary to the above, "Have you got" is more common in British English than "Do you have" (about 2:1); but "Do you have" is much more common in American English than "Have you got" (more than 10:1).

Note that the response includes only the relevant auxiliary: - "Do you have a pen"; "Yes, I do". - "Have you got a pen"; "Yes, I have".

In fact, the most common form where I live (in Northern Ireland) is simply "Have you", but that sounds old-fashioned to many English speakers elsewhere.

Have a look at the "Separated by a Common Language" blog.

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    Where did you get these statistics? Google Ngrams disagrees. Feb 15, 2015 at 12:30
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    I found where you got the statistics: the Separated by a Common Language blog. And one reason for the discrepancy with Google Ngrams is that "do you have" is rapidly gaining over "have you got" both in the US and the UK, and the British National Corpus was collected a decade or so earlier than the Corpus of Contemporary American English, and this time difference substantially increases the (already large) difference between AmE and BrE. Feb 15, 2015 at 12:38
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    Note that the Corpus has nothing at all to say about spoken usage. In AmE I hear "Have you got?" vastly more than I ever hear the other.
    – Robusto
    Jun 1, 2015 at 16:27
  • 'Note that the response includes only the relevant auxiliary' is true for the practice of most Brits, I'd say, but 'Yes I do' seems used almost invariably by many in the US. "Have you got a pen?" _ "Yes, I do". Jun 14, 2015 at 14:13
  • @EdwinAshworth: Do you have support for that assertion? I've heard that a couple of times now, from Brits, including 40 years ago. But (with no support from my side either) I would say that it is false - certainly "invariable" is false, even qualified by "many". I cannot say whether the proportion of AmE speakers who mix the two is greater than the proportion of BrE speakers who do so. But I would claim that it is rare in the US, in any case. A guess, based on a very small sample, might be that Brits "invariably" believe that Americans "invariably" speak that way. ;-)
    – Drew
    Jul 10, 2016 at 20:15
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The two are used for the same purpose, however, "have you got" is somewhat less formal and is popular in American English. So for all intents and purposes you can use them interchangeably. E.g.:

  • Have you got the money?
  • Do you have the money?
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    Yes. And even "Got the money?"
    – Drew
    Jul 10, 2016 at 20:17
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The word got generally bears a more informal sound to it, maybe because of its wide range of uses. In contrast, the word do, when used in this manner creates a structure that is probably unique to English. The latter option displays the verb-subject word order used in many other languages, while the former uses the do+subject+verb construction, which probably appeals to the native speaker's ear.

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"Do you have" has an active connotation through 'do'. "Have you got" has a passive connotation through 'have'.

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"Do you have?" means "Are you in possession of?" The answer could be just"Yes"

"Have you got" means "Have you taken possession of" or "Have you received?" The answer could be "Yes, I went to the shop this morning to get it".

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  • Welcome to EL&U. You may find it helpful to take the tour of this site before answering questions. Please note that answers are expected to be authoritative and substantiated by references were possible - to make it clear that the answers are not mere opinions. Also, please note that "Have you got" can also mean "Are you in possession of?".
    – TrevorD
    Jul 10, 2016 at 19:19
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    Not in the U.S. In my dialect, "Have you got?" means "Are you in possession of?" And "Have you gotten?" means "Have you received?" And using the wrong one is rare enough that I notice it. Jul 10, 2016 at 20:59
  • Consistent with Peter Shor's comment, I would use got to fill in the blanks in "Have you _____ a quarter I could borrow?" and "Have you _____ your registration papers with you?" and I would use gotten for "Have you _____ your flu shot yet?" and have you _____ your invitation to the wedding?" In those examples, "have you got" = "do you have" (or "are you in possession of") and "have you gotten" = "have you received."
    – Sven Yargs
    Jul 11, 2016 at 5:55

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