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Guest Posted 22 years ago
Grammar
Has or have
Which is correct:
A number of methods has been proposed ......
A number of methods have been proposed ......
A number of methods has been proposed ......
A number of methods have been proposed ......
Top answer
Something called the 'rule of proximity' is applied cases such as this, which overrules the grammatical rule. Grammatically, 'has' would be the right choice since it agrees in number with the head of the subject ('number'). However, 'have' is more acceptable due to this principle of proximity: 'methods' is closer to the verb than 'number' is, so you use 'have'.
- Something called the 'rule of proximity' is applied cases such as this, which overrules the grammatical rule.
- Grammatically, 'has' would be the right choice since it agrees in number with the head of the subject ('number').
- However, 'have' is more acceptable due to this principle of proximity: 'methods' is closer to the verb than 'number' is, so you use 'have'.
- The second sentence in your example seems to be the one to use.
- , in "A Grammar of Contemporary English", make what I think is an interesting comment about this.
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1 Answers
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Something called the 'rule of proximity' is applied cases such as this, which overrules the grammatical rule. Grammatically, 'has' would be the right choice since it agrees in number with the head of the subject ('number'). However, 'have' is more acceptable due to this principle of proximity: 'methods' is closer to the verb than 'number' is, so you use 'have'. The second sentence in your example
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