CORRECT THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES: “I HAVE ATE THE FOOD”, “I HAD DONE THE WORK”

By Abdul Azeez sulaiman.

 For the fact that English–Language has been recognized formally as our official language and as a result of that, served as a language that acts as a bowl that contains the knowledge we are being fed with from the onset of our academic activities until date, those above-posed questions are supposed to be a very simple things for us to answer. Infact underating its easiness and simplicity is to think of having a deep contemplation before attempting it.

 Hopefully! you have answered it right! Let's proceed.

Okay! if you had not done it, let me give you another two similar questions to alleviate any difficulty or complexity you might have encountered.

 They are;

v         I had saw my result

v         Adio have went to school.

You see! the sentences were even illogical to your brain because of the wrong uses of verbs.

 In a succinct manner, the verb “to-have” is a special type of verb that is formed principally for depicting possession.

As this verb is blessed with three forms in expressing tense and two in expressing number, it is worthy of mentioning that it also has some unique rules and regulations that distinct it from other verbs.

Starting with the form in tenses and numbers.

There is “have” which serves as the bare infinitive of the verb. In terms of number, it is only used for plural subject, and in tense, it is only used for simple present participle.

Take for example,

v      1. We have bought the long man dictionary.

v      2. They have killed the blasphemer.

 The second form is “has”. It shares the same feature with “have” in tense and distincts from it in number. It is used for singular verb.

See these also,

v           Lekan has eaten his meat.

v           Moshood has written a book.

 The third is “had”.

It is usually used in a sentence that comprises two clauses. One as a main clause and the second as a dependent clause. In tense, it is the past tense of both has and have. As it can be used for a singular subject, it can also be used for the plural one.

Example:

v          They had gone before we arrived.

They had gone is a clause. it is the main clause. Before we arrived is another clause. It is the dependent clause. It is called that because it depends on the main clause–and without the main clause, it couldn't make any sense.

Another example.

v            He had eaten before you called us.

You can also see that we used it for both plural and singular subject.

Now let's move to its rules and regulations. 

The first rule is that, any verb that precedes the “to-have” verb must be in its past participle form.

Take for instance,

v            Ade has bought a new phone.

Bought is the verb that precedes has and because of the laid down law, it is in its past participle form.

 Also, see this.

v            They have slaughtered our ram.

Slaughtered is the verb that precedes have and it is in its past participle form for that.

Note that The have verb rigidfy this law to the extent that its negativity form must also follow it.

For example.

v            Ade haven't seen the man not see.

v            They have not killed the rat not kill.

Hopefully! you have grasped it.

Now let's use this explanation to answer the first question.

The question says “I have ate the food”

The answer would be “I have eaten the food”

Ate is the simple past tense of the verb “eat” and the requirement of “to-have” verb is eaten which is the past participle of eat. Do you get it?

 For the second question that says “I had done the work”.

Base on what we have said on the uses of had. It is mainly used for sentence of two clauses.

So for this, had would have to be changed to have.

now it will be “I have done the work”.

Now I believe you have had the full grasp of it. Here are more examples to test your understanding. Do it and give the answer in the reply box.

«        He have killed  the rat.

«        They has took  the girl.

«        The lecturer has saw  his matric number.

«        The rain has swell  the dead rat.

«         I have fasten  my seatbelt.

 That is for this week lesson. Meet your tutor on next week for another episode.