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I was doing a test on an English site and I found this question:

 A He don't have a car.
 B He doesn't have got a car.
 C He haven't got a car.
 D He doesn't have a car.

The correct answer was ( D ) but I want to know why the answer ( B ) is wrong and if I'm wrong can anyone tell me or explain it to me.

Alan Munn
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aya oweida
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  • B may mean he has no car, by saying he doesn't have a car. Then it throws in 'got' for no reason. Without it, you have D, a good sentence. Working in the word got would be hard, since it's the past. Basically, B says He doesn't drive bought a car on the highway. – Yosef Baskin Jul 14 '17 at 19:06
  • sorry but I need it to be more clear for me . you mean > he doesn't have a car is the right answer because he already doesn't own a car. and the second sentence is wrong because ( got ) is in the past tense is this right ? – aya oweida Jul 14 '17 at 19:25
  • I'm sorry but @YosefBaskin 's explanation isn't correct at all. – Alan Munn Jul 14 '17 at 19:33

3 Answers3

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In the 'has got' construction, have is an auxiliary verb, and therefore never combines with do in negative sentences or questions. (The * means "unacceptable to a native speaker").

  1. John is here. - John isn't here. - Is John here?
  2. John is here. - *John doesn't be here. - *Does John be here.
  3. John has left. - John hasn't left. - Has John left?
  4. John has left. - *John doesn't have left. - *Does John have left?

The 'have got' examples pattern in the same way:

  1. John has got a car. - John hasn't got a car. - Has John got a car?
  2. John has got a car. - *John doesn't have got a car. - *Does John have got a car?

There's a bit more to this puzzle in reality, however, since in verb phrase ellipsis contexts, the have got construction does seem to allow do for many speakers:

  1. John's got a car, hasn't he?
  2. ??John's got a car and Bill has too.
  3. John's got a car, doesn't he?
  4. John's got a car, hasn't he?

As a side note, your A example He don't have a car along with He don't got a car are acceptable to many speakers, but obviously non-standard.

See the following question for more discussion:

Alan Munn
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  • Comments on why the downvotes? – Alan Munn Jul 14 '17 at 21:14
  • The question about correctness is of ELL standard; the non-availability of do-support for auxiliaries has been covered before (and, if I remember correctly, an explanation as to why this is the case offered). – Edwin Ashworth Jul 14 '17 at 22:46
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    @EdwinAshworth So how does this not answer the question of "Why is B the wrong answer"? If you want to close this as a duplicate, fine, but I really can't see another answer to the question that would be any different from what I've given. – Alan Munn Jul 14 '17 at 22:48
  • And yes, I've written on the rise of 'do' here too. What is the origin of auxiliary verbs. – Alan Munn Jul 14 '17 at 23:05
  • I consider it correct to downvote answers (from established users), even correct ones, that are essentially repeated material – in the hope that people will stop the practice of bloating. ELU is primarily intended to be an accurate and well-ordered repository of standard English usage, not a question-and-answer service. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 14 '17 at 23:33
  • @EdwinAshworth Isn't that what 'closing as a duplicate` is for? I don't care about the points, but this kind of behaviour certainly doesn't make me inclined to participate very much. And I don't know what 'well ordered' means in this context. – Alan Munn Jul 14 '17 at 23:38
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    Alan: It takes 5 votes to close, and on a Friday night that might take until the wee hours of Saturday morning. Apart from that, some people get tired of policing the same old stuff, and only vote to close for "lack of research" without bothering to look for a dupe. – Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_ Jul 15 '17 at 03:47
  • @Cascabel On other sites people leave comments when they vote to close. In the case of duplicates, an automatic link with a comment is generated. If people can't be bothered to search for duplicates but instead downvote perfectly reasonable answers instead, they're just making the site worse not better. There is very little intellectual value for me to participate in this site: I will never ask a question here and will only rarely learn things I don't already know. But as a linguist, I may occasionally have some useful things to say. – Alan Munn Jul 15 '17 at 04:06
  • Wow! I apologize for the culture here. Take it up on Meta, but I doubt you will get a warm reception with that attitude. – Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_ Jul 15 '17 at 04:19
  • @Cascabel My only point is that if answers like mine get voted down for what are effectively punitive reasons, this provides very little incentive for someone like me to participate. I don't care about the points but I do care that the voting has some semblance of rationality. – Alan Munn Jul 15 '17 at 04:26
  • I have close-voted (as I consider to be correct practice). For what I considered the principal reason here. And although I certainly agree with Cascabel's 'It takes 5 votes to close [and so is rather toothless]' and '... people get tired of policing the same old stuff', I did check for auxiliaries / NICE before claiming the duplication. / Could you 'be bothered to search for duplicates', or are you above that? // Obviously, your contributions to the site can be valuable, where original.// I wouldn't consider a textbook where the same material was covered repeatedly to be well-ordered. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 15 '17 at 08:39
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(NB. I speak Australian English, so my knowledge uses British English as its basis; e.g. "A colourful theatre programme.")

To me, D is the correct answer. It's saying "he has no car." B has included "does" which my awful memory knows is often used as an auxiliary verb. For instance, "I paint the wall" can become "I did paint the wall" instead of "I painted the wall."

My Grade Four teacher back in the 1970s disliked the use of "got" (and "gotten" was dismissed as An American Word, meaning, "it's just wrong and that's all there is to it!") when it has no real purpose in a sentence. As a word meaning "get" in a past tense, that's absolutely fine. But in a sentence like "I've got three pencils", -- that is, I possess three pencils -- 'got' isn't needed. "I have three pencils" is, I think, preferable. Except if the sentence were in response to "how many pencils did you get from the office?"

Sorry, I'm being long-winded. Answer B is not a correct sentence, the "got' is not required. Except if the sentence were asking "did he get a car yesterday, from a car yard?" In which case B would read "he didn't get a car" or "he hasn't got a car."

I hope this makes sense, sorry for any further confusion I might have caused you.

Darby Too
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The sentence "He doesn't have got a car" is wrong because it has an extra verb "got" in addition to the verb "have".

If we wanted to use "got" instead of "have", the correct way would be: "He doesn't get a car" or "He hasn't got a car".

pujji
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  • so verb ( got ) is the wrong in this sentence because it's past and the sentence is in present tense. Is that what do you mean ? – aya oweida Jul 14 '17 at 20:36