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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Have or has?

Can someone please explain to me why have is used in the following sentence instead of has? French is my native language and I'm working to read and write better English.

He is one of the few boys who have completed the course
  

Top answer

Try looking at your example from this perspective: Only a few boys have completed the course. He is one of them. He has They have

— JohnParis

  • Try looking at your example from this perspective: Only a few boys have completed the course.
  • He is one of them.
  • He has They have
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7 Answers
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Try looking at your example from this perspective:
Only a few boys have completed the course.
He is one of them.

He has
They have
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Have is used instead has because other than him, there were other boys who completed the course. The subject of the sentence therefore is not just one boy but one of the few boys which is plural. Hope that helps.
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Have is used instead of has because other than him, there were other boys who completed the course. The subject of the sentence therefore is not just one boy but one of the few boys which is plural. Hope that helps.
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Thank you for your reply.

This confuses me because there are both single and multiples in the sentence. I think I don't understand why the 'have' is better.
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AnonymousHe is one of the few boys who have completed the course
He is one among these:

the few boys who have completed the course.

boys is the subject; who refers back to boys; have is the verb.
______________________

He is not one boy who has completed the course among these:

the few
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Don't let your fellow human being scares you.
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Thank you so much for the brilliant explanation, CJ. Emotion: big smile
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