ıwill be glad if u reply

[ozkanataseven]

he is one of the students who has/have book.
which one is right has or have and why?.please help me.

[Casiopea]

"He" is the subject of "is", so "He"agrees in number with "is".

EX: He is . . .

"who" is the subject of the second verb.

EX: . . . who ____ the book.

but "who" can be either singular or plural, so to figure out whether the second verb should be singular "has" or plural "have", you have to find out what "who" modifies, what it stands for.

EX: . . . one of the students who ____ the book.

"who" modifies "one of the students", specifically, it modifies the head of that phrase, which is "one".

EX: . . . one of the students who ____ the book.

Now, "one" is singular, so that makes "who" singular, too.

"who" agrees in number with singular "has".

EX: . . . one of the students who has . . .

In short, singular "has" agrees in number with singular "one", the head of the phrase.

"He is the one who has the book."

[shemesh tzila]

sorry, I don't agree with you. I think that the suject of the second verb is "students" e.g. = plural, so the verb must be "have" . He is one of a group of students who have books. he isn't one of a group who have not books. So he has also books.

I'm an Israeli girl and I compared this sentence to the translation of it to Hebrew. "one of..." is not "...the one.." but one of a group.

I'll be glad if you'll answer me and write your opinion to this explanation .

Tzila

[Tdol]

This is a tricky area in English, but you won't find the answer by comparing it to another language. Number can vary from language to language. In English, we can look at things from a couple of principles- grammatical number and proximity. You'll hear people in Britain say 'there's two' quite happily- I heard Michael Swan, the grammarian, use it in a lecture last week. Which is correct:
There's a man and a woman outside.
There are a man and a woman outside.
If we count numbers, we'd conclude that the second is right, but the proximity idea means that many, if not most, will say the first bacause 'are + singular article' sounds strange.
You will find English speakers in the UK who would use the plural there because 'people have' sounds OK, but you won't find the answer in Hebrew, Russian or Swahili, IMO. I think taking one language's logic and applying it to another is not a scientific basis for an assessment of whether something is right or not- many languages have no plural, so how would they judge this example?

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by shemesh tzila

I think that the subject of the second verb is "students" e.g. = plural, so the verb must be "have". I'll be glad if you'll answer me and write your opinion to this explanation.

Hello Tzila.

The phrase "one of the students" refers to one student among many students. Only one student (in the group of students) has a book:

EX: Only one student has a book.
EX: Only one of the students in the group has a book.

Consider the following subject-verb agreement. Both the subject and the verb are singular:

[1] One wants cake.
[2] One student wants cake.
[3] One of the students wants cake.
=> Among all the students, only one student wants cake.
[4] Only one of the students has a book.
[5] He is one of the students who has a book.

In [5], "who" refers back to "one", and "one" refers to "He". They are all singular in number, which is why the verbs "is" and "has" are singular, too. Changing "has" to "have" results in ungrammaticallity:

EX: He is one of the students who *have a book. (ungrammatical)

In short, the phrase "one of the students" is always singular.

EX: One of the students is sitting over there.
EX: One of the students *are sitting over there. (ungrammatical)
EX: Two of the students are sitting over there.

Does that help?

[shemesh tzila]

:- sorry on delaying my response. I appreciate with all my heart
your help in answering a detailed reply.
Thanks a lot.
Tzila

Originally Posted by Casiopea

Hello Tzila.

The phrase "one of the students" refers to one student among many students. Only one student (in the group of students) has a book:

EX: Only one student has a book.
EX: Only one of the students in the group has a book.

Consider the following subject-verb agreement. Both the subject and the verb are singular:

[1] One wants cake.
[2] One student wants cake.
[3] One of the students wants cake.
=> Among all the students, only one student wants cake.
[4] Only one of the students has a book.
[5] He is one of the students who has a book.

In [5], "who" refers back to "one", and "one" refers to "He". They are all singular in number, which is why the verbs "is" and "has" are singular, too. Changing "has" to "have" results in ungrammaticallity:

EX: He is one of the students who *have a book. (ungrammatical)

In short, the phrase "one of the students" is always singular.

EX: One of the students is sitting over there.
EX: One of the students *are sitting over there. (ungrammatical)
EX: Two of the students are sitting over there.

Does that help?