Have got and has got for children (A1, ages 6–9): food questions like “Have you got fries?”

Food and fruit words for this topic

Point to the real food or a picture as you say each word. Notice the small word in front: one thing you can count takes “a” (“a milkshake”), or “an” before a vowel sound (“an apple”). Fries and the fruit words end in “s” for more than one, so there is no “a”: “Have you got grapes?” Pizza, salad and chicken often have no “a” either: “Has he got pizza?”

“Grapes” and “fries” start with two consonants. Help your child join them with no vowel in between: “grapes”, not “guh-rapes”. In British English, fries are also called “chips”.

• Lunch food: salad, fries, pizza, milkshake, cheese sandwich, chicken
• Fruit: apples, bananas, grapes, pears, figs, oranges

Have you got…? Questions with you

Put “Have” first, then “you got” and the food: “Have you got a milkshake?” The short answer repeats “have” and drops “got”: “Yes, I have.” or “No, I haven’t.” A child can add a reason after “No”, as in the recording: “The fries tray is empty.”

Someone answering for a stall or a family uses “we”: “Yes, we have.” “No, we haven’t.” In full sentences, “I have got” is usually shortened to “I’ve got”.

Has he got…? Has she got…? Questions about others

With he, she or one person’s name, “have” becomes “has”: “Has he got a cheese sandwich?” “Yes, he has.” “Has she got pizza?” “No, she hasn’t.” When the question uses a name, the answer still uses “he” for a boy and “she” for a girl, as in the recording below. A short rule helps: I, you and we take “have”; he and she take “has”.

Counting in tens: 10 to 100

From 20 to 90, the tens end in “-ty”, with the stress on the first part: “THIR-ty”. In “thir-TEEN” the stress moves to the end, which helps your child hear the difference. Spell “forty” without the “u” of “four”. At home, make piles of ten pasta pieces and count the piles: “ten, twenty, thirty…”

• 10 ten, 20 twenty, 30 thirty, 40 forty, 50 fifty
• 60 sixty, 70 seventy, 80 eighty, 90 ninety, 100 one hundred

A pretend food stall at home

Use a box as the counter and hide four food pictures or toy foods behind it. Your child, the customer, asks three questions: “Have you got pizza?” You answer for the stall: “Yes, we have.” or “No, we haven’t.” Give a teddy one food, and your child asks about it: “Has Teddy got chicken?” “Yes, he has.” Then swap roles. Five minutes is plenty.

Writing a lunch-box note

Once the questions are easy, your child can write four lines about a real or imagined lunch box: one question and three answers. The question ends with a question mark and each statement with a full stop.

• Have you got fruit?
• I’ve got an apple in my lunch box.
• I’ve also got a cheese sandwich.
• I haven’t got fries.

Common mistakes and quick fixes

These are normal at this stage. Repeat the sentence correctly and carry on.

• “Have he got pizza?”: with he, she and a name, use “has”: “Has he got pizza?”
• “Yes, I have got.”: the short answer stops at “have”: “Yes, I have.”
• “Yes, I’ve.”: never shorten a yes answer: “Yes, I have.”
• “Have you got milkshake?”: one thing you can count needs “a”: “Have you got a milkshake?”
• “Has Tom got pizza?” “Yes, she has.”: a boy is “he”: “Yes, he has.”

What comes next

When this is easy, add “they”: “Have they got bananas?” “No, they haven’t.” Then join two ideas with “but”: “I’ve got grapes, but I haven’t got figs.” Next, the same pattern describes a school week: “What have we got on Monday?”