have a say

present singular third person has a say · participle present having a say · participle past had a say · past had a say · alternative have one's say

1. idiomaticintransitiveTo (receive the opportunity to) voice one's opinion.

   He didn't have a say in deciding where he and his family would go on vacation.

   3 more examples

   Lenin's premisses require us to believe that the interests and aims of a social class, the proletariat, can and indeed must be determined without that class having a say in the matter.

   1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozwój (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 391

   The essence of a democracy is not that people vote on whatever they want, but that every adult has a say in how he or she is governed.

   2011 September 19, David Schmidtz, Jason Brennan, A Brief History of Liberty, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 1891

   We go to school and we go to work under conditions where people don't have a say in their day-to-day life; they don't have a say in the things that happen around them.

   2016 January 8, Kevin Danaher, Shannon Biggs, Jason Mark, Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grassroots, Routledge, →ISBN