Habes

Habes is a Latin verb form meaning "you have." It is the second person singular present indicative active form of habere, the verb that means “to have” or “to hold.” Habere is a member of the Latin second conjugation; its present indicative forms are habeo, habes, habet, habemus, habetis, habent.

In classical Latin, habes is used to indicate possession or a relational state. An example is Tu librum habes, meaning “You have a book.” Because Latin is highly inflected, the subject pronoun tu is often omitted when the verb ending already marks the person and number.

Habes should be distinguished from habeas, the present subjunctive form meaning “that you may have” or “you should have.” The phrase habeas corpus, literally “you should have the body,” is a famous legal term used in many jurisdictions to denote a protection against unlawful detention.

Beyond its grammatical role, habere and its forms appear in Latin literature, phraseology, and in the study of Latin grammar. They also give rise to numerous Latin-derived words and to scholarly practice in teaching Latin conjugation and syntax.

See also: habeas corpus; habere; Latin conjugation; Latin grammar.

Note: In scholarly editions, macrons may mark long vowels (e.g., habēs, habeō, habēmus). In ordinary ASCII notation, habes is the common representation for the second-person singular present indicative form.