Have vs. Has

[thomasofhunter]

Hi,

My name is Nate. This is my first time posting on a forum like this. Hi.

I am not good at verbal and decent at Math. My best test came on a CAT exam where I got a 600 (44Q 30V). I decided I should study more verbal and get better at it. I just feel helpless when it comes to sentence correction. It is by far my worst subject in the verbal section.

Here is the thing, when I read explanations of have and has I do not understand the terminology and I am left even more confused. Does anyone have an easy way or a trick or some good examples that can really break it down for me.

Also, one of my strategies in sentence correction is to look for similarities in the 5 sentences and eliminate the odd ones out and then go from there

For Example:

a) of destroying or damaging property, and is primarily determined from wind speed; a category 5 storm has wind speeds so high as

b) to destroy or damage property, and is primarily determined from wind speed; a category 5 storm has wind speeds high enough

c) of destroying or damaging property, and is primarily determined by wind speed; a category 5 storm has wind speeds so high as

d) to destroy or damage property, and is primarily determined by wind speed; a category 5 storm has wind speeds high enough

e) to destroy or damage property, and is primarily determined by wind speed; a category 5 storm has wind speeds so high as

three sentences start with "to" and two sentences start with "of". I feel like I should eliminate the two "of"'s and focus on the other three. Is this crazy? I just need to get a 550 for the program I am trying to get into so I feel like general rules or concepts will help me a lot because I will be facing the basic questions most of the time. Thanks for reading this and any potential comment you may leave.

Nate

p.s. my test is on 5/26/2009

[kramacha1979]

Have/Has is very similar to buys/buy in terms of verb form
Has is singular just like buys.
Have is plural just like buy

Nate has a question on types of SC errors

Even though I have multiple plural nouns in this sentence .. such as errors, types.. etc.. the Subject of the verb Has is Nate, a singular noun
Kate and Nate have a question on a type of parallelism structure tested on the GMAT.
Here there are 2 Nouns joined by and, hence plural verb Have needed.
Kate, in addition to Nate, has a question .. Then it's a singular subj and not plural


Makes sense ?

[thomasofhunter]

yes. thank you very much.

Nate

[StaceyKoprince]

I think I've already missed your test date, but for others who may be reading this in future:

It's not a good idea to eliminate based on the frequency of differences in answer choices. It's not uncommon at all for there to be, for example, three "have" options and two "has" options and for one of the "has" options to be the correct answer.

To some extent, you really do need to learn the material, even if you are not going for a super-high score. :)