I have to generate random questions Yes/No about hotels, restaurants, etc. for a Natural-Language Programming task. The focus is on questions about characteristics about such places that are rather dynamic (e.g., current length of queue, available parking spaces).
I'm trying to cover a wide range of formulations so that not all questions look too much alike (e.g. Is KFC nice? Are the rooms in Hilton Hotel large?). As a non-native English speaker, I stumble upon some problems to guarantee grammatically correct questions. Given the following two example questions:
- Does [RESTAURANT-NAME] have a promotion?
- Is [RESTAURANT-NAME] having a promotion?
I would say that both questions convey the same meaning, with the latter maybe emphasizing the current moment (implying that promotions are rather infrequent and dynamic). Is this correct?
My follow-up question is now: When I can use both forms interchangeably? For example, when I have
- Does [RESTAURANT-NAME] have vegan dishes?
- Is [RESTAURANT-NAME] having vegan dishes?
The second one "feels" wrong since the menu usually doesn't change much over time. Am I correct to say that the possibility to formulate a "Is/Are… having… ?" depends on the meaning/semantics of the question? In other words, I cannot always use both formulations and I cannot trivially decide in a program?
Best Answer
The word have has multiple definitions. Here are two:
Your promotion example uses definition 4 (action) whereas your vegan dishes example uses definition 1 (possession).
You ask:
Yes. When used in the sense of possession, the is having form sounds awkward.