gehabt

Gehabt is the past participle of the German verb haben (to have). It is used together with an auxiliary form of haben to form perfect tenses, and it does not function as a standalone verb in the present tense.

In ordinary speech and writing,haben’s perfect forms are built with the present tense of haben as the auxiliary and the participle gehabt for the main verb, for example: Ich habe gehabt, Du hast gehabt, Er hat gehabt. The participle gebraucht appears not only with possession but also to describe experiences or conditions that were in effect before another past moment, often in combination with another verb in a temporal context. For instance: Ich habe heute viel zu tun gehabt. Wir haben zwei Jahre lang dort gelebt; here the phrase would use gelebt instead of gehabt, but with haben as the main verb in the sense of “to have had” one can say: Ich habe einen Hund gehabt.

Gehabt is not used as a noun; it is strictly a participle form. In compound tenses and subordinate clauses, it retains its role as the past participle of haben, with its endings determined by the auxiliary verb and subject.

Common usage notes: the simple, concise past equivalent of besitzen is often expressed with hatte rather than habe gehabt, especially in narrative contexts. The form Haben + gehabt is entirely grammatical and used to indicate a past possession or experience that has relevance for another past moment.