Can 有 be used to form present perfect tense?

Question

One meaning of 有 is "have" i.e. possess. Can 有 also be used to form the present perfect tense as in "I have looked", possibly "我有看"?

If so, then a follow-up question: what is more natural, using 有 or 过?

Answer 1

Yes, you can use 有 to form present perfect tense, consider the following examples:

1. In mainland, people usually don't use 有 (to me it sounds a bit childish and made me think of a little girl.) :

   Michel: 你看过 "Pride and Prejudice" 没? Have you ever read ...

   Emily: (我)看过。 I have read it.

2. In Hong Kong or Taiwan, looks like it's frequently used (I haven't been there but in quite a lot of TV series and variety shows the celebrities often use it, friends from there may correct me if I'm wrong)

   Michel: "你有看(过) 'Pride and Prejudice' 没?"

   Emily: "(我)有看(过)啊，很好看的。" (I have read it.)

Here you can see, since you have used 有, 过 becomes optional.

As for 有 and 过, in order to form a perfect tense you should at least use one, depends on which tone do you want to use from the previous examples.

Answer 2

This is an really interesting question. It is actually a wrong usage in Taiwanese Mandarin. Since we speak a lot of Taiwanese here, the usage of adding 有 in showing past perfect is effected by Taiwanese or which called "Minnan" dialect.

In standard Chinese grammar, for example: I have read the book. 我讀過那本書。 ---->我有讀過那本書。 Have you had dinner? 吃過飯了嗎？ ---->有吃飯了嗎？

If you get someone who can speak Minnan dialect, it will sound perfectly smooth in Minnan. However, it became an incorrect usage that used by everyone in Taiwan.

Answer 3

I believe the question is more complicated than a misuse in Taiwan. In Xinhua dictionary, 有 has a meaning of yield or have happened.

Consider the short sentence.

情况有变化。

It is a rough paraphrase to 情况变了. 了 is, of course a perfect tense word. So could we also regard 有 here as a perfect tense word too?

Sadly, among linguists there is still controversy upon the issue. I would personally suggest 情况有变化 emits a stronger feeling of Situations have changed than There are changes in situations.

Consider another phrase

有辱师门

What 有 means here? The phrase does manifest a solid meaning of have shamed masters instead of Something exists, which shames masters.

The only consensus researchers have reached so far is 有 doesn't act as an auxiliary verb. The word is still a transitive verb. So you feel OK when the following word/phrase is both a verb or a noun, or is often regarded as a noun, namely a gerund. But it is weird when conditions are not met.

An idea comes to my mind that we may need a 'perfect tense' scale. From the weakest to the strongest lies 有, 过 and 了. Improper combinations of 'past tense' word and the following verb give strange impressions.

Besides, I would remind you 有 is more of an aspect word, rather than a tense word. It only implies perfect, not necessarily present. For instance, 情况有过变化 has a stronger meaning of Situations had changed. And sometimes the word's meaning is probably overrided, such as 在这几年里，情况有变化 (Situations are changing in the past few years.).

I'm not a professional studying Chinese. Feel free to challenge me if you have different ideas. Finally I'd like to point out language itself is a evolving magic, maybe one day today's misuse would become tomorrow's fashion.

Answer 4

“我有看过”= “我看过” it means I have read it. "有" emphasis that have already do something.

Answer 5

I'm from southern China. In my experience, 过 is used more to form present perfect tense than 有.

But sometimes people do use 有. It seems more common in Taiwan mandarin, or at least "stereotypical" Taiwan mandarin.