Has or Have?

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

n o s p a m p l e a s e - 25 Mar 2009 14:41 GMT

A large number of tests has (or have?) been conducted.

What should it be?

Regards
NSP

Reply to this Message

Einde O'Callaghan - 25 Mar 2009 22:30 GMT

> A large number of tests has (or have?) been conducted.
>
> What should it be?

Both are possible. The use of "have" is in my opinion a bit informal. It
would also depend on whether the emphasis is on "number" or "tests".

Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

Reply to this Message

Dilip Barad - 08 Apr 2009 09:05 GMT

On Mar 25, 6:41 pm, n o s p a m p l e a s e <nospam.ple...@live.com>
wrote:

> A large number of tests has (or have?) been conducted.
>
> What should it be?
>
> Regards
> NSP

This is really a tricky one. I am eager to know the rule of grammar
that governs such sentence construction. I feel it should be 'has'
because it is 'A large number'.... and may be 'have' because of
'tests'..... not clear??? can anybody help?

Reply to this Message

Einde O'Callaghan - 08 Apr 2009 09:21 GMT

> On Mar 25, 6:41 pm, n o s p a m p l e a s e <nospam.ple...@live.com>
> wrote:
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> because it is 'A large number'.... and may be 'have' because of
> 'tests'..... not clear??? can anybody help?

Both are possible, depending on whether the emphasis is on "number" or
on "tests".

Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

P.S. I think I answered this question - or a similar one - recently
either here or in another newsgroup.

Reply to this Message

stan vincent - 24 Apr 2009 02:00 GMT

not that critical BUT:

simple-look at the use of the object(s) in the rest of the sentence
if the use is about the whole then singular
if use is about many individual parts of the group then plural

in this case what has been conducted? -tests.
i.e. all of the individual tests HAVE been done and the discussion may go on
to say the RESULT IS ...
or the RESULTS ARE....

so use plural verb have

each member of the group is voting
all members of the group are voting.
the group (as a result or as a whole ) has decided (also because it is not
possible for an individual to decide for the group-the decision is an
aggregate )

>> On Mar 25, 6:41 pm, n o s p a m p l e a s e <nospam.ple...@live.com>
>> wrote:
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
> P.S. I think I answered this question - or a similar one - recently either
> here or in another newsgroup.

Reply to this Message

heron stone - 16 Jun 2009 14:51 GMT

In article
<897121fe-5ef4-4638-ae82-9d7550c8feee@f18g2000vbf.googlegroups.com>,

it's not tricky at all.
it's just badly written.

it should read, "Many test have been conducted."

or

"3712 tests have been conducted."

or

"Hundreds of tests have been conducted."

etc.

Signature

unDO email address
___
Nature, heron stone
to be commanded, http://gendo.net
must be obeyed. mailto:heronDO@gendo.net

Reply to this Message

heron stone - 13 Jun 2009 18:12 GMT

In article
<c682a90c-b828-4d2c-82e8-4963849e0be7@v38g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>,

> A large number of tests has (or have?) been conducted.
>
> What should it be?
>
> Regards
> NSP

rewrite it...

"Many tests have been conducted."

Signature

unDO email address
___
Nature, heron stone
to be commanded, http://gendo.net
must be obeyed. mailto:heronDO@gendo.net

Reply to this Message

Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / June 2009

Has or Have?