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A teacher passed out pencils to all the students in the class and said, "Has everyone got a pencil?"
The students answered,
(a) I have a pencil.
(b) I have got a pencil.
(c) I have one in my hand.
(d) I having a pencil.
Is the usage of have in these sentences technically correct?
Apart from the sentence (d), all the sentences are correct grammatically.
However, the answers (a) and (b) are most appropriate in the context of the question asked. You can reply either I have or I have got a pencil.
Answer (a) answers the question directly and is grammatically correct.
Answer (b) is more informal. It passes in conversation but I would not recommend that wording in a more formal document, unless it was a quotation. Max's answer explains why.
Answer (c) is also grammatically correct; it merely adds some information that wasn't initially requested.
Answer (d) is incorrect, because the verb is wrong. We do not say, "I having" anything. We might say "I am having" something, (such as, "I am having a party tomorrow," or "I am having a fit right now"), but I can think of no context where "I having" would be grammatically correct.
Incidentally, have is a very tricky word, as you might have noticed. It can mean own, or have in one's possession (as in, "I have a pencil"), but the word can be used in a host of other ways, too:
(All of those have shifted away from the notion of ownership or possession to some degree or another.)
When we are talking about possession, relationships, illnesses and characteristics of people or things we can use either have or have got. The have got forms are more common in an informal style.
Have got has the same meaning as have and both are used as present tenses. Note that have got is NOT the present perfect of get.
From: BBC Learn English
So the answer to the question is yes.
In this case, "have got" is grammatical but redundant, since it means exactly the same as "have". But, despite the redundancy, lots of people would say "I have got a pencil" and it's not at all wrong.
One case where "have got" is useful is when contradicting a negative. If the teacher looks accusingly at you and says, "You don't have a pencil, do you?", you can show him or her your pencil and reply, "I have got a pencil!" In that case, the emphatic "have got" is more natural than just saying "I have a pencil."
The first three sentences are grammatically correct. The fourth is not.
Time to get a new teacher. The question is poorly worded. "Does everyone have a pencil?" Or, "Did everyone get a pencil?" "Does anyone not have a pencil," would be easier to answer than leaving the student wondering, "Do I answer for myself or for the whole class?" "Has everyone gotten a pencil," would be grammatically correct, but still colloquial. Avoid the word, got, to indicate possession. An exception would be a baseball outfielder shouting, "I've got it." The statement needs to be short & to the point before the ball lands on the ground, or the players collide.
