"Would you rather have me GIVE you that money?" OR "Would you rather have me GIVING you that money?"

Question

From a TV show.

Would you rather have me give you that money right now? Dr. Phil (see:21:10-21:14)

A few days ago, I saw a very similar structure being used in another sentence:

"I would rather have you working in the fast food industry than I would have you hooking..."

As you can see, although both sentences have almost the same structure, in the 1st sentence the verb is in bare form(GIVE), and in the 2nd sentence it is in gerund (WORKING).

So are both usages correct or is one of them wrong?

Answer 1

Both are correct. This structure can be completed by a bare infinitive "have you do" or a participle" "have you doing". The participle version shares the "present progressive" sense of a temporary state, rather than an action.

Hence "have me give you that money", for the action of "give that money", but "have you working" for the ongoing (but temporary) sense of "be working in the fast food industry"

As usual with "work/be working" there is a grey area in which both "work" and "be working" are reasonable. This example could be rephrased as "I would have you work in the fast food industry..." with very little difference in meaning.