The verb hê "to have" is short, extremely common, and quietly one of the trickiest words in beginner Afrikaans — not because its forms are hard, but because its present form, het, is also the auxiliary used to build the past tense of every other verb. That overlap is the single biggest parsing hurdle this verb creates for English speakers, and once you see how to resolve it, hê becomes easy.
The full forms
| Form | Afrikaans | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | hê | to have |
| Present (all persons) | het | have / has |
| Preterite / simple past (all persons) | had | had (rare, formal/literary) |
| Perfect | het gehad | have had / had |
| Future | sal hê | will have |
| Imperative | hê | have! |
As with every Afrikaans verb, there is no person agreement: ek het, jy het, sy het, ons het, hulle het — one present form for all subjects, exactly as English would say I have / she has but without the -s.
Present: het = "have"
In the present, hê appears as het. This is straightforward possession.
Ek het 'n kar.
I have a car.
Sy het twee kinders.
She has two children.
Het jy tyd?
Do you have time?
Notice the last example: there is no do-support. English inserts do to ask a question ("Do you have...?"); Afrikaans simply puts the verb first — Het jy...?
het's double life — the key insight
Here is the point that trips up nearly every learner. The very same word het is also the auxiliary verb that builds the perfect (the normal past tense) of every regular verb. So het means two different things depending on the sentence:
- het as "have" (the main verb): Ek het 'n boek. = "I have a book."
- het as past-tense auxiliary: Ek het gewerk. = "I worked." (literally "I have worked")
How do you tell them apart? Scan to the end of the clause for a participle — a ge- form like gewerk, gekoop, geëet. If there is a participle, het is the auxiliary and the clause is past tense. If there is no participle — just a noun, an object — het is the main verb "have."
Ek het geld.
I have money. (het = 'have'; no participle follows)
Ek het geld gekry.
I got money. (het = past auxiliary; gekry is the participle)
Past of hê itself: het gehad
So how do you say "I had" — the past of hê as a main verb? You apply the regular perfect machinery to hê itself: the auxiliary het plus the participle of hê, which is gehad. The result is the slightly comical-looking but perfectly normal het gehad — literally "have had."
Sy het 'n probleem gehad.
She had a problem.
Ons het gister 'n partytjie gehad.
We had a party yesterday.
Ek het dit gehad, maar nou is dit weg.
I had it, but now it's gone.
There is also an old one-word past, had ("I had"), but in modern Afrikaans it is rare and formal/literary. In everyday speech, het gehad is the natural past of "to have." Reach for had only in elevated written register, if at all.
Future: sal hê
The future uses sal "will" plus the bare infinitive hê (circumflex!) at the end of the clause.
Ek sal genoeg geld hê.
I will have enough money.
Ons sal 'n probleem hê as dit reën.
We'll have a problem if it rains.
How this maps to English
English keeps "have" (the verb) and the perfect auxiliary "have" formally identical too — "I have a car" vs "I have eaten." So the idea of one word doing both jobs is not foreign. What is new is two things.
First, in Afrikaans the auxiliary use is far more frequent, because het is the default past tense of almost every verb, not just a "perfect." Where English would say a simple past "I worked," Afrikaans says ek het gewerk. So you meet auxiliary het constantly.
Second, English never doubles "have have." Afrikaans cheerfully does: ek het gehad = "I have had" / "I had." Beginners often balk at the apparent repetition and drop one, but het gehad is exactly right.
Common mistakes
❌ Ek gehad 'n probleem.
Incorrect — gehad is a participle and needs the auxiliary het in front of it.
✅ Ek het 'n probleem gehad.
I had a problem.
❌ Ek het 'n kar gehad. (meaning: I have a car, present)
Incorrect — adding gehad makes it past; for present possession use het alone.
✅ Ek het 'n kar.
I have a car.
❌ Het jy doen jou werk?
Incorrect — do-support carried over from English; there is none in Afrikaans.
✅ Het jy jou werk gedoen?
Have you done your work? / Did you do your work?
❌ Ons sal 'n probleem het.
Incorrect — after sal you need the infinitive hê, not the present het.
✅ Ons sal 'n probleem hê.
We will have a problem.
❌ Ek het 'n boek.
(meaning 'I read a book') — Incorrect: with no participle, this only means 'I have a book.'
✅ Ek het 'n boek gelees.
I read a book. (the participle gelees makes it past)
Key takeaways
- Present het = "have," every subject, no agreement, no do-support in questions.
- The same het is the past-tense auxiliary for nearly every verb — disambiguate by scanning for a clause-final ge- participle.
- The past of hê itself is het gehad ("have had"); the one-word had is rare/formal.
- Future is sal hê (mind the circumflex); imperative is the bare hê.
- For the perfect-tense system that het powers, see the past tense overview; for the parallel star irregular verb, see wees (to be); for possession with se instead of hê, see possessive se.
Now practice Afrikaans
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- The Past Tense: het + ge-participleA1 — Afrikaans has one ordinary past tense — het plus a ge-participle at the end of the clause — and it covers both 'I walked' and 'I have walked'.
- The se-Possessive: Jan se boekA1 — How Afrikaans shows possession with the invariant marker se, the everyday equivalent of English 's.
- wees (to be) — Full FormsA1 — The complete forms of wees 'to be' — present is, preterite was, future sal wees — the single most irregular verb in Afrikaans.
- Choosing the Perfect Auxiliary: hetB1 — Afrikaans uses het as the perfect auxiliary for every active verb — there is no hebben/zijn or haben/sein split — and the only is + participle you ever meet is the passive, not an active perfect.