Haven't

How to spell haven't

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce haven't

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does haven't mean?

1. verbThe contracted form of 'have not', used to state that something has not happened or that something is not possessed.

Haven't in a sentence

• We haven't received the invoice from the supplier yet.

• They haven't decided where to spend the holiday this year.

Where does haven't come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a contraction of 'have not', and both pieces are deeply native English. 'Have' descends from Old English 'habban', meaning 'to hold or possess', a verb shared across the Germanic languages and ultimately rooted in a sense of grasping or holding. 'Not' comes from Old English 'nawiht', literally 'no thing' or 'nothing at all'. The blended, shortened spoken forms with '-n't' became common in writing during the 1600s and 1700s as everyday speech found its way onto the page. The apostrophe stands in for the missing letter 'o' of 'not', and remembering that single dropped letter is the key to placing the mark correctly. The same '-n't' pattern produces a whole family of contractions such as 'don't', 'isn't', and 'wouldn't'.

How the word is built

• have (verb)
• -n't (contracted form of 'not', with apostrophe marking the dropped 'o')