Owe vs Have - What's the difference?
owe | have |
To be under an obligation to give something back to someone or to perform some action for someone.
*1854 , Dickens, Hard Times , Chapter 7:
*:He inherited a fair fortune from his uncle, but owed it all before he came into it, and spent it twice over immediately afterwards.
To have debt, to be in debt.
To possess, own, hold.
To be related in some way to (with the object identifying the relationship).
To partake of a particular substance (especially a food or drink) or action.
Used in forming the and the past perfect aspect.
must.
To give birth to.
To engage in sexual intercourse with.
To accept as a romantic partner.
(transitive with bare infinitive ) To cause to, by a command or request.
(transitive with adjective or adjective-phrase complement ) To cause to be.
(transitive with bare infinitive ) To be affected by an occurrence. (Used in supplying a topic that is not a verb argument.)
(transitive with adjective or adjective-phrase complement ) To depict as being.
Used as interrogative auxiliary verb with a following pronoun to form tag questions. (For further discussion, see "Usage notes" below)
(British, slang) To defeat in a fight; take.
(Irish) To be able to speak a language.
To feel or be (especially painfully) aware of.
To be afflicted with, to suffer from, to experience something negative
To trick, to deceive
(often with present participle) To allow
* 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) Chapter 2
As a verb owe
is to be under an obligation to give something back to someone or to perform some action for someone.As an adjective have is
gaunt; pale and thin.owe
English
Verb
(ow)Usage notes
* The original past tense form was ought, which during Middle English began to be used with indefinite signification and has become a distinct verb. The original past participle has become the adjective own.Anagrams
*have
English
Verb
: Additional archaic forms are second-person singular present tense hast 'and second-person singular past tense''' hadst''' or ' haddest .- I have a house and a car.
- Look what I have here — a frog I found on the street!
- I have two sisters.
- The dog down the street has a lax owner.
- I have breakfast at six o'clock.
- Can I have a look at that?
- I'm going to have some pizza and a beer right now.
- I have already eaten today.
- I had already eaten.
- I have to go.
- Note: there's a separate entry for have to .
- The couple always wanted to have children.
- My wife is having the baby right now!
- He's always bragging about how many women he's had .
- Despite my protestations of love, she would not have me.
- They had me feed their dog while they were out of town.
- He had him arrested for trespassing.
- The lecture's ending had the entire audience in tears.
- The hospital had several patients contract pneumonia last week.
- I've had three people today tell me my hair looks nice.
- Their stories differed; he said he'd been at work when the incident occurred, but her statement had him at home that entire evening.
- Anton Rogan, 8, was one of the runners-up in the Tick Tock Box short story competition, not Anton Rogers as we had it.'' — ''The Guardian .
- We haven't eaten dinner yet, have we ?
- Your wife hasn't been reading that nonsense, has she ?
- (UK usage) He has some money, hasn't he ?
- I could have him!
- I'm gonna have you!
- I have no German .
- Dan certainly has arms today, probably from scraping paint off four columns the day before.
- He had a cold last week.
- We had a hard year last year, with the locust swarms and all that.
- You had me alright! I never would have thought that was just a joke.
- "You're a very naughty boy. If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times. I won't have you chasing the geese!"