“Having” + Past Participle | Advanced English Grammar

Video Overview & Insights

Confused about how to use “having” + past participle in English? In this grammar lesson, I explain this advanced structure, with examples like “having done” and “having finished”. You’ll learn how to form these phrases, when to use them (mainly in writing), and why they indicate completed actions. I’ll also clear up common confusion between participles and gerunds, as in: “Having overseen production...” vs. “Having several years of experience...”. For more practice, take the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/having-past-participle-advanced-english-grammar/ And don’t forget to subscribe for more advanced English lessons!

More of my advanced English grammar videos:

Advanced English Grammar: Participles https://youtu.be/eWvkSp16VFY

Advanced English Grammar: The Infinitive Clause & the Infinitive Phrase https://youtu.be/exmDE3cMU24

In this lesson:

0:00 "Having" + Past Participle

0:25 How to use this structure

3:58 Complex examples

TRANSCRIPT

In today's video, we're going to look at a bit of a grammar situation that for some reason

people have a hard time with.

And I'll show you why you shouldn't, because you've already studied this particular structure

in other contexts, with other words and stuff.

So today we're going to look at "having" plus a past participle.

For example, "having been", "having done", "having played", "having finished", etc.

So I'm going to give you a couple of examples to start with, just to show you how we get

to this structure to begin with, and then I'll show you some other situations where

it's a little bit confusing.

So "Having edited his paper, Tom was ready to submit it."

Now, first of all, keep in mind that in spoken English, you probably won't hear this too

much.

It's a little bit formal.

It's mostly used in writing.

But in writing, it is very common to see this structure.

So it's important to understand it.

So first thing you need to understand is that "having" is just... it's basically like a

reduction of a conjunction, a subject, and the verb.

What's very important to remember is that this is a perfect tense, means that whatever

action happened here is finished, is completed, in the past.

Okay?

So, "After he had edited, all of this squeezes to this."

And that's what the "having" means.

The conjunction, "after" or "because", etc., suggests that it's understood in terms of

the context of the whole sentence.

So it's also very important to understand that when you're using this participle in

this kind of structure, the understood subject, like "he", must be the same as the subject

of the next clause.

You can't have this beginning with a different subject because people will not understand

what's happening, who did what, when the action happened, when it finished, etc.

Now, if you want to see it even simpler, I split the two clauses into separate sentences.

"Tom finished editing his paper."

"He was ready to submit it."

These two sentences mean the same as this one sentence.

Now, notice that I don't use "finished".

I could say "having finished editing" instead of "having edited".

So "ing" here, "ed" here.

Why?

Because the "finished" is understood in the "having", because remember, it's a complete

action, so it's obviously he finished doing it, he completed this process, and then we

go to the past participle to show the full mixture of the things, right?

"He had edited", it becomes a past participle squeezed into the "having".

Now, I know this might be a little bit confusing, but we can use this in any context as long

as we have the same subject, right?

So, "Sandy, having finished her chores, Sandy was allowed to go out."

"Having finished her chores", because I don't have a verb for "choring", for example, right?

There's no such thing, so I have to use the "finished" something.

"Having finished" is basically you have twice completion, but because I don't have another

verb for "chores", or I could say "having done her chores", if you want to do it that

way, that would work as well.

"Having finished her chores", "having done her chores", etc.

The "finished", a little bit redundant, redundant meaning you're saying something that you don't

need to say, it's already understood in the "having".

But there are situations where it can be very confusing what is happening, so I'm going

to show you three sentences so that you can compare this particular structure with a simple

participle and with a gerund, which is where people often get confused.

Let's look at that.

Okay, so now we're going to look at a few more sentences, and I'll show you some areas

where it can get a little bit confusing.

So, before we get into the direct comparison, let's look at this one just to give you another

idea of how it could be read in two ways.

Sentences with "having" can be used in two ways.

"Having been to Spain several times, Jim is a great person to ask for tips."

So, this could be an adverb clause or an adjective clause. […]