The verb to have in english and its equivalents in vietnamese

Do Thi Kim Lien 1999: 90, she states that: “Verb is the complicated word - class, it is used widely and takes a leading -position in the lexical stock, the verb plays a nuclear role in f

Finally, I would like to thank my family, especially my parents whoprovided me many good conditions, the great consolation from beginning to end.

Many thanks to all of them

Vinh, May 2004

Truong Thi Hai

1 In the sense of “own” or “possess” 14

II “Have”in the structure : Have + Object1 + Verb + Object2 31 III “Have” in the structure : Have + Object + Present participle 33

PART I - INTRODUCTION

1 - Reasons for choosing the study

Nowadays English has become one of the most important internationallanguages in the world The number of people who communicate and use it asthe first language has been increasing day by day In Vietnam, everyone is aware

of the roles of English in their life – jobs, so the need of learning English hasbeen popular all areas To meet that need, many English teaching - learningcentres are opened, the quality of training courses is quite good This is one ofthe good signals the government should care about English is used in manyfields: polictics, economics, art…especially in the system of internationalespecially in the system of internationaleducation, but to learn English well is not easy for Vietnamese learners Oneverb may have a lot of different meanings, depending on context that verb has itsown meaning, and this itself makes troubles to learners However, besides thediffculties, we find it so interesting thus researching the English verb is one ofthe themes done in students’graduation thesises and they achieved the deserved

results According to Ph.D Do Thi Kim Lien (1999: 90), she states that: “Verb

is the complicated word - class, it is used widely and takes a leading -position

in the lexical stock, the verb plays a nuclear role in forming the sentence”,

Nguyen Kim Than(1999: 92) also states: “The number of sentences that the

predicate is verb is 86%; predicate is adjective is 4%; predicate is noun only is 8% ” That are the reasons why the verb is very useful and important both inEnglish and in Vietnamese

When learning English, we find the problems of learners in approaching theverb, we take the great consideration on comparing verb between languages.That interests and encourages us to choose the topic: The verb "to have" inEnglish and its equivalents in Vietnamese

2 - Aims of the study

- Helping Vietnamese learners understand the usages of the verb “to have”when it is used as an ordinary verb and its equivalents in Vietnamese

- Helping them know and apply the verb “to have” in some constructions andits equivalents in Vietnamese

- By means of teaching suggestions of the verb “to have”, we hope that oursmall thesis will give some contributions to help learners leave out theirerrors in the process of learning English

3 - Methods of the study

- Analysis and presenting method

We analysise the usage of the verb “to have” and present it

- Contrastive and comparision method

We use this method to find out the similarities and differences between usingthe verb “to have” in English and in Vietnamese

4 - Scope of the study

- Studying the verb “to have” in some constructions and as an ordinary verb aswell as its equivalents in Vietnamese

5 - Design of the study

This thesis consists of three parts: Introduction, contents and conclusion

Part I: Introduction

- Reasons for choosing the study

- Aims of the study

- Methods of the study

- Scope of the study

- Design of the study

Part II - Contents

Chapter I : Overview on English verbs

Chapter II : “Have” as an ordinary verb

Chapter III : “Have” in some constructions

Chapter IV: Findings and Discussion

Part III - Conclusion

PART II: CONTENTS

The general matters

In every language, the verb (V) plays the most imfortant role among theunits: S, V, O, C and A in forming the construction of sentences The verb isconsidered as a part of speech denoting an action, a process, a state or expressing

an idea or emotion, the being of person or thing in the universe You will be able

to get familiar with any other aspects of grammar, you should have acomprehensive understanding of verb It is necessary to research

1 Verb classification

According to A.J.Thomson and A.V Martinet, verbs can be classified into:Auxiliary verbs and Ordinary verbs

1.1 Auxiliary verbs

Auxiliary verbs are verbs that have grammatical function in the verbphrases, help complete the meaning of the verb phrases

There are two kinds of auxiliary verb:

- Primary auxiliaries : be, do, have

- Modal auxiliaries : must, should, can, need, ought to, etc

1.2 Ordinary verbs

Ordinary verbs are those that denote action or state and they themselves carry full dictionary meanings

There are many categories to classify ordinary verb:

 According to the ability, to be used in progressive form, verbs are

classified into: Stative and Dynamic verbs

- Stative verbs: are verbs that can not be used in continuous form They express state, experience, condition, ect

Eg

Like, respect, mind, think, forget, want, wish, see, taste, perceive…especially in the system of international

- Dynamic verbs: are verbs with continuous form, they express action

Eg

Ask, work, write, change, grow, feel, fall, lose, jump, kick…especially in the system of international

 According to the relationship between the verb elements in the clause, we classify verb into: Intensive and Extensive verbs

- Intensive verbs: are verbs that take subject complement (Cs ) or obligatory adverb (Aob )

+ They take object and object complement

2 Verb forms

2.1 Ordinary verbs

Ordinary verbs often have five forms: the base form, the -s form, the past, the-ing participle and the – ed participle Regular ordinary verbs have 4 actual forms because they have the same – ed inflection for both the past and the past participle : V, V-s, V-ed1 =V- ed2, V- ing Irregular ordinary verbs have from 3

to 8 forms

 Verbs with 3 forms

V = V – ed1 = V – ed2 V-s V-ing

Some other verbs : put, run , cost, hurt, etc

 Verbs with 4 forms

V= V- ed2 V-s V- ed1 V-ing

Eg come comes came coming

Other verbs : become, overcome, run,…especially in the system of international

 Verb with 5 forms (Most of the ordinany verb)

V V- S V-ed1 V-ed2 V- ing

Take takes took taken taking

 Verbs with 8 forms : There is only one verb “be”

Be, am, is , are, were, was, being, been

- Modal auxiliaries

Modal auxiliaries have only one form which is used for all persons and numbers They are followed by the base forms whether they are in negative or not Theirforms are the following

Can’t Couldn’t Mayn’t Mightn’t Shan’t Shouldn’t Won’t Wouldn’t Mustn’t

Oughtn’t to Must

Ought to

3 The grammatical categories of the English verbs

3.1 Tense

Parallel with the notion of tense, English refers to the time Time is a

universal, non - linguistic of concept of the verb phrase with three divisions : past, present and future We understand tense as the correspondence between theform of the verb and our concept of time English has two tenses : Present and Past

 Simple present

- The timeless present : expressed with the simple present form It expresses the habitual action as well the universal statements

Eg

My mother goes to work everyday

Spiders have eight legs

- The limited present : expressed with the present progressive

Eg

Normally, he lives in Ha Noi but now he is living in Vinh city

- The instantaneous present, expressed with either the simple or the progressive form

Eg

I write with a speccial pen

As you see, I am dropping the stone into the water

 Simple past: it indicates that an activity or situation took place and ended at a particular time in the past It is found with adverbs referring to past time such as:yesterday, ago, etc

Eg

My father visited me two days ago

However, there are some exceptional cases in which the past tense does not have

to refer to the past time Such as: In indirect speech, attitudinal past,

hypothetical

 Future tense English does not have future tense, but a number of possibilities

of denoting future time , future actions can be denoted by: Shall( in 1st persons

only) + V, Will( in all persons) + V Or : Be going to + V; be about to/ be to + V; be + V-ing; will be + V-ing

Eg

He’ll be here in haft an hour

You are to be back by 10 o’clock

- Perfective aspect : Have + V-ed2

The choice of perfective aspect is associated with time – orientation and consequently also with various time – indicators such as : So far, up to now, lately, since, etc

Eg

I have lived here since 2000

And sometimes it does not require time – indicators

At that time, it implies a past action with consequence to the present time

Eg

Lan has played table tennis

- Progressive aspect : Be + V-ing

It indicates temporariness – an action in progress instead of the occurence

of an action or the existence of the state

Eg

We were dancing then

- Perfect progressive aspect : Having been + V-ing

He bought a new car

- Passive: is used when the agentive is neglected or emphasized:

Eg

This house was built two years ago

This house was built by my brothers

He spoke to me as if I were deaf

 In this chapter, a general look on English verbs has been mentioned, all of

which will help the readers have a comprehensive undrestanding of the verb

In the next chapter we will refer to : HAVE AS AN ORDINARY VERB

Using the verb "to have" as an ordinary verb is quite popular and it can beused in the following meanings

We often use “have” to talk about states : Possess, relationships, illnesses, thecharateristic of people and things, and similar ideas Sometimes “have” simplyexpresses the fact of being in a particular situation, especially in fomal styles

This is the basic of meaning of “have”, we can use “have” in place of “havegot” in the present and sometimes in the past to express this sense

2 Possession of physical characteristics

This case, “have” and “have got” are often combined with nouns like :

black beard, blue eyes, blond hair, etc to describe appearance They are also can

be combined with number of things or quality of a substance to convey thissense

Eg

He has got longish, straight, dark hair and brown eyes

[17,33] This plant has (got) lovely russet leaves

[12,200] Our house has (got) five rooms

[18,7]

3 Possession of mental and emotional qualities

With this sense, "have" and "have got" are combined with nouns like: faith,patience, a very nice personality…especially in the system of internationalto describe character

In Vietnamese, we can use the word "có" or omit it but the meanings of

sentences are the same

Eg

Cô ấy có những cách c xử lịch sự song đôi lúc lại nóng vội, thay đổi bấtthờng

[12,200] Delta còn có sự nhiệt tình, đam mê chân thật và một tài năng lớn có thểchiếm lĩnh thị trờng thế giới

Huệ Chi là cô gái trong trắng, tốt bụng hết sức ngoan đạo và rất thơng mẹ.Huệ Chi thể chất rất yếu, dễ xúc động, tâm hồn dờng nh luôn sống với một thế giới không phải của thực tại…especially in the system of international

[8,196]

There is a little mixture between 2 and 3 what we can recognize from

the outside (Outside appearance), they are the physical characteristics What brief through the actions, behaviours that are mental qualities

4 Family relationships

Nouns (noun phrases) following “have” in this case indicate therelationship in family of subject who is being mentioned

Eg

Have you (got) any brothers or sisters ?

My mother has (got) two sisters

[5,201]

[8,156] And in Vietnamese

5 Illnesses

Here, “have” and “have got” are combined with 'nouns' describing pains andillnesses to show the state of health, the physical condition, or suffer from pain,disability of subject

Nếu bạn đã mắc bệnh, bạn có thể dùng thuốc thay thế hoocmôn cộng với nhữngbài tập giúp khoẻ xơng

[6,7]

[3,45] According to the above analysics, we can summarize the equivalentsbetween two languages: English and Vietnamese in the table below:

I have(got) a good dentist

(Means: whom I can recommend to you)

[12,201]

Here, we should not translate “have” means "có" as its meaning as follow:

Tôi có một nha sĩ giỏi

It can be translated:

Tôi quen một nha sĩ giỏi, ngời mà tôi có thể giới thiệu cho bạn

“Have” in this case only has meaning when having relationship or contacts withother people ; it lies on the social relationship

Eg I've had a phone call from Sue

[16,229] Did you have a letter from home this morning?

[9,157]

My sister has had a beautiful present from her boyfriend

As in Vietnamese, we use word “nhận đợc”, “tiếp nhận” to convey this

sense

Hôm qua nhận đ ợc th em

Cả một đêm không ngủ

[1,11]Mỗi ngày trong chuyến du thuyết, bà nhận đ ợc hàng trăm lá th và quàtặng

[1,11]

Họ nhận đ ợc các đơn đặt hàng với số lợng 500 cái một tuần

In the sense of “eat”, “have” may be combined with the words concerning themeals and the dishes which has become a popular usage in English Therefore,

we often say: have breakfast, have lunch and have dinner to call three meals in aday (Morning, afternoon and dinner)

Eg

What do you have for breakfast?

I have toast and coffee

[18,34]

My family always has dinner at 6.30 p.m

We also use “have” with this sense when we want to invite someone

Eg

Will you have some tea / coffee ?

[18,219]

A What shall I have rice or the minestione soup ?

B If I were you, I'd have the rice

[2,55]

In addition to the meaning “eat”, “have” also equates with “drink”

Eg

He always has a beer when he is wathing T.V

In Vietnamese, we usually use directly words : Ăn , uống, chè chén

when we want to convey this sense

Eg

Đã thế mà ngày xuân họ lại rủ nhau chè chén ngâm vịnh

[11,182] Chúng tôi thờng không uống sâm banh ở nhà

Sáng nay tôi đã ăn hai quả trứng và một ít bánh qui

Eg

Chúng tôi sẽ tổ chức một buổi dã ngoại tại đây vào tuần tới

Anh trai tôi đã tổ chức một buổi tiệc nhỏ để mừng ngày sinh nhật của mình

Nam diễn viên chuyên nghiệp vừa tổ chức một buổi diễn thuyết về vấn đề nhânquyền

[1,3]

In this meaning, “Have” is often combined with words of time, holiday,festival or with adjectives, such as: good, nice or bad It expresses the thingssomebody has experienced whether are good or bad

Eg

I had a very bad night because of the neighbour’s noise

Did she have an interesting jouney?

They had a nice weather in the moutain last summer

[9,157]

In Vietnamese, this shade of meaning is often used in description and we use

words : “Trải qua”, “thởng thức” to translate it.

Eg

In “Huệ Chi trớc ngày cới” Nguyên Hồng wrote:

“Còn ngày nay và bây giờ đây, Huệ Chi tuy đã trải qua nhiều phút kinh hoàngkhủng khiếp, song Huệ Chi lại không bị ngất và cũng không thấy ốm, thấy sốt gìcả”

[8,193] Tôi đã trải qua một đêm rất tồi tệ vì tiếng ồn của nhà hàng xóm

Bạn đã từng th ởng thức những món ăn ngon tại nhà hàng Hoa Hồng nàycha?

In this meaning “have” is accompliced with: Trouble, difficulties, problemsand it refers to bad things which the speakers do not really want

In Vietnamese , we use words : Gặp, gặp phải…especially in the system of international to talk about it

Eg

Hiện nay các c dân của đảo Thanh niên đang gặp rất nhiều khó khăn về

ph-ơng tiện đánh bắt thuỷ sản, và các điều kiện cơ sở vật chất thiết yếu khác để pháttriển sản xuất, xây dựng cuộc sống

[1,5] Tôi đang gặp khó khăn rất lớn trong việc thuyết phục cô ấy đi chơi với tôi Anh có gặp phải khó khăn về việc kinh doanh không ?

Besides that, “have” also have some other equivalent cases To Vietnamese,

we also use words : Hiểu, biết or biết đợc when mentioning about people’s

knowledge of certain fields or understanding of certain people

Eg

His assitant has a good understanding of stock market

I do not have a thing about maths

To Vietnamese, the above sentences are translated:

Trợ lý của ông ấy rất am hiểu về thị trờng chứng khoán.

Tôi chẳng hiểu gì về toán học cả

Or other sentence:

Cô ta biết đợc nhiều quyết định quan trọng của giám đốc

“Have” is also equivalent to “buy” ( mua, tậu) or “take” ( lấy)

Eg

Her daughter had a villa in the centre of city

(Con gái của bà ấy đã tậu một biệt thự ở trung tâm thành phố )

Or I have no further use for this computer, so you can have it

(Tôi không còn dùng cái máy này nữa ,vậy anh có thể lấy nó đi )

From the above analyses, we have the general structure as follow:

tổ chức

S + thởng thức / trải qua + NP/NP biết / hiểu biết

mua / tậu lấy

“Have” is considered the most commonly empty verb of other ones in English( take, give, go, make…especially in the system of international) which is used to perform an action by combining withnoun in place of the other verbs At that time, the verbs functions objectsbecause they become nouns When being an empty verb, "Have" has no meaningbut the meaning of the whole sentence depends on following nouns The verbswill become noun without changing the letter when we add an article "an/a"before them

[235,9]

I have a drink every evening before dinner

[202,13]

In examples above, "have" replaces the verbs "take”, “entertain”,

“experience” and the equivalents of “rest”, “enjoy”, “meet”, “drink”

We can arrange the empty verb "have" into the following groups:

Eg

Having a shower every evening in summer is very comfortable

 Eating and drinking

Have lunch Have a drink Have a tea

Eg

I have a drink every evening before dinner

 Speech