n o s p a m p l e a s e    701040 Wed, 25 Mar 09 01:41 PM A large number of tests has (or have?) been conducted. What should it be? Regards NSP n o s p a m p l... Writing

	Einde O'Callaghan    701044 Wed, 25 Mar 09 09:30 PM "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 Einde O'Callaghan Regards, Writing

	Dilip Barad    701076 Wed, 08 Apr 09 09:05 AM "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? Dilip Barad Regards, Constructions, Sentences, Writing

	Einde O'Callaghan    701099 Wed, 08 Apr 09 09:21 AM "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?" 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. Einde O'Callaghan Regards, Constructions, Sentences, Writing

	stan vincent    701133 Fri, 24 Apr 09 02:00 AM 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 ) stan vincent Plurals, Sentences

	heron stone    778722 Sat, 13 Jun 09 06:12 PM "A large number of tests has (or have?) been conducted. What should it be? Regards NSP" rewrite it... "Many tests have been conducted." heron stone Regards, Writing, Numbers

	heron stone    781624 Tue, 16 Jun 09 02:51 PM "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?" 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. heron stone Regards, Constructions, Sentences, Writing, Numbers