Phrases with HAVE and TO SEE

HABER and A VER are pronounced the same way. These words or groups of words are called homophones, which means that they are two words whose spelling is different, as is its meaning, but it nevertheless shares exactly the same pronunciation. For this reason, it is quite common to confuse both terms. In this article by a teacher we will study the difference through various phrases with HAVE and TO SEE, with the aim that you know what are the uses of each one and thus avoid possible spelling mistakes.

Index

1. Phrases with HABER
2. Phrases with A VER
3. What is the difference between HAVE and TO SEE

As a rule, "haber" is an infinitive verb form which belongs to the second conjugation, formed by all those verbs whose infinitives end in -er. Furthermore, "haber" is used as an auxiliary in the formation of the compound infinitive:

• Having come before, so you wouldn't have missed the movie.
• Not having understood the book makes class more difficult.
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• Something may have happened at the train station.
• Had I known, I would have come to your aid immediately.
• Do not complain and have studied more for the exam.
• You should have seen the exhibition I recommended.

Also, the way "haber" works as an infinitive of the impersonal verb that indicates the existence of what the noun that accompanies it names, since the verb "have" is a impersonal verb, that is, it lacks a subject since what accompanies it, normally, is usually a complement direct. Let's see this phrase with have:

• There must be a lot of things in your new house.

"Many" is not the subject of the verb "haber" but is the direct object, since it can be replaced by the direct object pronoun "las": There must be.

On the other hand, the way "haber" can also function as a masculine noun singular, with the approximate meaning of 'set of goods or possessions that a person has':

• To his credit he had a house on the beach, two cars and a flat in the center of the city.

"Let's see" is a sequence made up of two elements: the preposition "a" followed by the verb form in the infinitive "see":

• Go see what they told your mother about me.
• We went to see the show in the afternoon.
• I'm going to see my Aunt Rosa.

Something that characterizes this structure is that it is usually used as a fixed expression which has different uses depending on the enunciation context. Let's see it through the following phrases with to see:

• Look what I bought yesterday. - Let's see?

In the previous sentence, we can see that the tone of "Let's see" is interrogative, compared to the previous sentence. This is so because through the interrogative nuance in the intonation, the speaker is asking his interlocutor to let him see what he has bought yesterday.

• Let's see when we have that coffee that we have pending.

When "to see" is followed by an indirect interrogative sentence (in the previous sentence, introduced by "when"), this structure expresses interest in something formulated in the subsequent sentence. In the example above, the speaker is showing his willingness to have coffee with the interlocutor.

Sometimes, "Let's see" can be replaced by "let's see" which indicates that this expression is directly related to the verb watch and not with to have: See if you dare to tell him everything you think about him - Let's see if you dare to tell him everything you think about him.

The main difference between "have" and "to see" is the fact that the first of them is the infinitive form of the same verb and, as a general rule, it usually acts as auxiliary in the compound form of the infinitive or used in impersonal sentences, that is, lacking subject.

On the other hand, "to see" is an expression, in most cases, a fixed form that expresses willingness to carry out something or a call for attention prior to what you want to say, ask, ask or order the interlocutor: Let's see where we meet that the bar is closed today or Let's see, what do you want to know?

If you want to read more articles similar to Phrases with HAVE and TO SEE, we recommend that you enter our category of Orthography.