student asking question

Does the intention of the phrase "having" in this sentence is to emphasize?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

More so than being used to add emphasis, "having" in the present participle here serves the purpose of showing the present condition. We can understand Emma Watson as using "having choices" to mean the continuous condition of being able to make choices for oneself, and not just as a one-off event. Just having "choices" by itself would not express this idea clearly, nor would it be grammatically sound. Furthermore, using the past or future tense would also be inappropriate here. Ex: The important thing about feminism is having choices. Ex: I like having the choice to do what I want.

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