Thursday, June 27, 2013

We "Have" a Problem

I have something I want to get rid of. You can have it for free. It's have — the one that appears in this Connecticut Post article. You may have come in peace, have, but you are a has-been; nobody wants you around anymore. The time has come to have you removed.

The sentence pictured is an example of present-perfect tense; it expresses an action that started in the past and continues into the present. To create the present-perfect tense, we need a past participle (in this case, lost) and an auxiliary verb, which is also called a helping verb. The helping verb that has what it takes in this instance is has. The subject, UConn, which is short for University of Connecticut, takes a singular verb. Has, not have, is the singular verb. Ergo, this sentence is no safe haven for have.

Have you had enough?

I have.

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