have

have

1. For the type ☒ No state has λ or can adopt such measures, see ellipsis ³.

2. In a sentence of the type Some Labour MPs would have preferred to have wound up the Session before rising, the present infinitive is preferable, i.e. Some Labour MPs would have preferred to wind up the Session before rising, although the perfect infinitive is sometimes found when the past nature of the unperformed action is being emphasized. Examples:

• Fish, who had decent feelings, would have preferred to be pawed in privacy —J. I. M. Stewart, 1975

• I would have preferred to have seen an accompanying annotated sketch so that the plant zonations could be easily recognised —Birds, 1981.

3. have to and have got to.

In the meaning ‘must’, have to normally denotes habitual or continuing necessity (I have to wear contact lenses) whereas have got to denotes immediate or temporary necessity (I've got to catch a train in half an hour). In the past tense, had to is much more usual than had got to:

• In addition to his normal day's work in the library, he had to care for a complete invalid, shop on the way home,…and then translate demanding tomes until one or two o'clock in the morning —D. Murphy, 1979

• He knew…that in order not to lose control irretrievably of his life he had to hold on to his job —William Boyd, 1981.

The only available perfect and pluperfect forms are have had to and had had to:

• They like the feeling that they have had to fight other men for possession. That is what it is all about, really —Anita Brookner, 1984

• Turning the other cheek was for girls who hadn't had to give blow jobs to tramps in exchange for a few pieces of candy —P. Booth, 1986

• Since Sara had not had to show I.D. at the motel she'd given them a different alias —D. P. La Selle, 2004.

4. For don't have = haven't got and do you have = have you got, see do ⁴.

5. For had have, see had ².