Grammar Fix: Have you got it?: have, have got, and who says which

Objective & content

students recognise that have and have got are both correct, standard English for talking about possession — have is the safe universal default (the form taught by the French 2025 collège reform), have got is the British spoken variant, equally correct, just more casual. This unit does not teach a mistake to fix: the goal is not to correct one form into the other, but to help students notice which style a British speaker uses versus an American speaker, and to keep their own usage consistent within one sentence rather than mixing the two systems. The printable is the unit's class pack: one A4 pupil sheet (recognition items, then fill-in and word-order drills) printed once per pupil, and one teacher sheet with the answer key and the notes below.

Pedagogical guide

The sheet targets one learner error, the way every Grammar Fix unit does: the wrong form is named once, then every item drills the right one. Use it after the class has watched the unit, or on its own as a targeted repair when the mistake shows up in written work.

Suggested procedure

1. (3 min) Write the target sentence on the board and ask what is wrong with it. Collect the class's answers.
2. (10 min) Pupils work through the pupil sheet alone: recognition items first, then the drills.
3. (5 min) Check with the teacher sheet. Read the explanation of each recognition item aloud.
4. (2 min) Exit line: each pupil writes one correct sentence with the structure on a slip of paper.

Adaptations

• [S] Do the recognition items together as a class before pupils try the drills alone.
• [A] ask students to write three questions about a partner's possessions, all consistently in one style — either all with have got or all with plain have — then swap sheets and check that no question mixes do with got.

Materials & prerequisites

One pupil sheet per pupil, one teacher sheet. No audio needed; the Grammar Fix unit video is an optional lead-in. Watch for: the one genuine mistake in this unit is mixing the two systems — pairing have got with do-support, as in "Do you have got a car?" or "I don't have got any money." This is wrong in both accents, not a style choice: have got forms questions and negatives by inverting have itself (Have you got...? / I haven't got...), while ordinary have as a full verb needs do-support (Do you have...? / I don't have...). Every recognition item on this sheet tests exactly this hybrid slip — not the have-versus-have-got choice, which has no single correct answer to test.

Curriculum alignment

Grammar tags: be-have-got. Filed at A2- (the level where the mistake starts to appear); the example sentences stay inside that band.

Assessment & extensions

The exit line is the check. Extend with the Grammar Fix unit itself, or with the grammar sheet on the same structure when one exists.