Monday, April 16, 2018

questions - “Have you no shame?”



Are these questions grammatically correct?




  1. Have you no shame?

  2. Have you no money?


  3. Has he a friend?



or it is not allowed to use have and has (in this situation) to make a question?


Answer



They are perfectly grammatical. That is, they are too grammatical, using an inverted word order to form a question rather than a "do" form. They have become set phrases.



There is nothing wrong with the set phrases "Have you no shame?" and "Have you no money?" but "Has he a friend?" certainly sounds odd. Normally this set form is used with "no", and "Has he no friends?" would be fine.



In normal speech, "Don't you have any money?" and "Does he have any friends?" would be used.



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