OK pedants, answer me this...

[MrsBadger]

Which is more correct?

Have you got a pen?
Do you have a pen?
Have you a pen?

(3am bouncing session with dd, brain went into meltdown and it's bothering me.)

[AgonyBeetle]

Grammatically, all are ok, it's a question of stylistics.

'Have you got' is sometimes considered a little inelegant; 'Do you have' is fine, possibly slightly American in comparison with 'Have you got'; 'Have you' is slightly stilted, I think.

Have you/have you got/do you have a specific reason for asking?

[MrsBadger]

jiggling a baby in the dark for an hour makes my mind, well, wander.

I was also mulling over Scottish vs English constructions

Have you not got a pen?
I've not got a pen

Haven't you got a pen?
I haven't got a pen

[BellaBear]

The annoying answer to all three is 'yes, thank you'

[stuffitllama]

Wouldn't the Scottish be
Have ye nae pen?

[AgonyBeetle]

I have a sneaking liking for "I don't got none".

[ellideb]

It's like my mum always taught me to ask 'would you like a sweet?' and not 'do you want one?' one way sounds more polite than the other i think.

[SquonkTheBeerGuru]

I would reply "get your fucking own" so I would ask "hee hee, look at my luvverley pen... you can't have it"

[SorenLorensen]

Gizza pen.

[stuffitllama]

Do you have a pen I could lend of off you?

[stuffitllama]

Borrow us your pen mate

[SorenLorensen]

Or (common usage when I was in school) "can you borrow me a pen?"

[SorenLorensen]

Cross posted with stuffitllama

[stuffitllama]

soren
same school plainly

[SquonkTheBeerGuru]

get a pencil

[stuffitllama]

I will lend you my pen when you ask nicely.

[SorenLorensen]

(which, as I typed it for the first time, I realised was stuffit - llama. I always read your name as stuff it all mama. Well, you live and learn).

[SorenLorensen]

Yer can't 'ave me pen, me mam give it me.

[stuffitllama]

plainly not the school where one asked to borrow one's friends' caran d'ache

[asicsgirl]

I always like the way Americans answer questions like 'Have you got a pen?' with 'Yes, I do'. Just makes me smile. Call me weird.

To answer the OP, as Agonybeetle says, they're all 'correct'. It's all about formality isn't it. It might feel odd to ask your 5-year-old 'Have you a pen?', in the same way it would feel odd to say to the Queen 'Gorra pen?'.

I've also got a niggling feeling that the meaning you're trying to get across has an effect. E.g. if you're asking someone to lend you a pen, 'Do you have a pen?' sounds a bit weird to me, whereas if you're asking them to write a phone message down, it sounds less weird. This could be codswallop though.

[MrsBadger]

I didn't want to borrow said pen, I was, as you suggest, going to give them a phone message and wanted to know if they had one on or about their person.

Otherwise I'd say 'Would you mind awfully if I borrowed your pen?' or 'I'm terribly sorry, I don't suppose you have a pen I could borrow?' because I am a old sap.

[stuffitllama]

i would say have you got a good memory or do you need a pen

or would i

not an old sap but perhaps just join the Polite Society

"Please may I join the Polite Society, if it's alright with you?"

[asicsgirl]

lol MrsBadger

I would say 'Have you got a pen' for both situations I think, but then I am down with the kids. Word.

[HilariusBookbinder]

Isn't is funny that people point to the excruiciatingly polite vagueness in Japanese speech and don't seem to notice just how similar we are.

EG: 'I was just wondering whether you might have a pen that I could borrow.'

.. which is at theast three steps removed from actually being so crass as to ask to borrow a pen.

'Have you got a pen that I can borrow?' becomes 'Have you got a pen that I could borrow?' becomes 'Might you have a pen that I could borrow?' Then the questioner chickens out of even asking and just reports the idle musing about the situation, ''I was just wondering whether you might have a pen that I could borrow.'