“I Haven’t A Clue”
On a language forum that I frequent a Romanian girl has asked whether the sentence “I haven’t a car” is correct English, since she had read it in a book but was expecting to read “I don’t have a car” or “I haven’t got a car”.
There are the usual responses that are less than ideal, including one where a chap who was against the usage adjusted his position to say that actually it is permissible.
I don’t want to say that I would never use “haven’t”…
For example I would use the following in everyday speech:
- I haven’t eaten all day.
- Did you take the garbage out.?
No…no I haven’t.
Well, that was enough for me. He’d given a misleading answer in a thread that was all rather amateurish and riddled with inaccuracy. I felt the urge to inject some facts into it, and I think that this makes for a nice blog post, so I’ve copied it here.
That’s not the same as the example asked. Here have is an auxiliary used when composing a past tense, and it can’t be partnered with the auxiliary do or the additional got.The thread-starter wishes to know whether it’s possible to leave the standard verb have bare, no do or got accompanying it in negative and interrogative phrases.
The answer is that it is possible, but not used very often now.
The auxiliary do didn’t come into use in English until a few centuries ago, hence Shakespeare’s use of “Where goest thou?” rather than “Where dost thou go?”
The role of do was to provide an auxiliary in negative and interrogative sentences which didn’t contain one of their own. Be is an auxiliary, so we ask “Are you married?” rather than “Do you be married?” On the other hand, drink isn’t an auxiliary, so we ask “Do you drink tea?” rather than “Drink you tea?”, which is the older form.
Have was originally treated as a semi-auxiliary, since it is used as such in compound tenses. For this reason people didn’t add do. One would ask “Have you any tea?” in accordance with the rules. The reply would be, “No, I haven’t” rather than “No, I don’t”.
Over time people have started not to treat have as an auxiliary in these constructions, so it is very common to hear “Do you have the time?” and the response “No, I don’t.”
In the more recent past people have started using the form have got, have again playing the role of an auxiliary. In these cases there is no need for do, so one would ask “Have you got the time?” and receive the response “Yes, I have [got the time]“.
So you can say “I haven’t a clue” just the same as you would “I don’t have a clue” and “I haven’t got a clue”. It depends on how you’re using the verb have. If you think of it as a (semi-)auxiliary you can use “I haven’t a clue” or “I haven’t got a clue”. If you don’t, you need to add do.
Common usage isn’t equal. The form have as an auxiliary but without got is a little old sounding, and isn’t used so much anymore. However, if you wish to use it you have the right to, since it’s perfectly regular use of English.
There, I hope that I answered the question adequately 
Tags: Don't Have, Have, Have Got