When do you use “have” and when is “having” correct? In this easy-to-follow English grammar lesson, I’ll show you how to use both forms correctly and naturally. In general, we use “having” when we want to emphasize an ongoing state, a prior completed action, or an action treated as a concept rather than an event. Choosing “having” instead of “have” often depends on whether the speaker wants to highlight duration, cause, or experience. To possess or contain as a constituent part: a car that has air bags. 2. To occupy a particular relation to: had many disciples. 3. To possess knowledge of or facility in: has very little Spanish. 4. To hold in the mind; entertain: had doubts about their loyalty. 5. To use or exhibit in action: have compassion. 6. a. Noun having (countable and uncountable, plural havings) The act of possessing; ownership. Synonyms for HAVING: hands, possession, control, keeping, acquisition, gain, owning, possessing; Antonyms of HAVING: loss, misplacement, deprivation, mislaying, privation, dispossession, forfeit, penalty to cause to be done or to happen, as by command or invitation: [~ + object + root form of verb] Have him come here at five.[~ + object + verb-ed/-en] We were having the kitchen redone.[~ + object + verb-ing] She had me running back and forth all day. The HAVING clause is used to filter the results of a GROUP BY query based on aggregate functions. Unlike the WHERE clause, which filters individual rows before grouping, the HAVING clause filters groups after the aggregation has been performed. Meaning of having in English having present participle of have (Definition of having from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press) HAVING and WHERE are often confused by beginners, but they serve different purposes. WHERE is taken into account at an earlier stage of a query execution, filtering the rows read from the tables. Middle English, from Old English habban; akin to Old High German habēn to have, and perhaps to hevan to lift — more at heave entry 1. “Have.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, . Accessed 4 Nov. 2026.