There has to be or there have to be, that is the question.

[name_1]

Hi,
My first language is French, but, for a living, I write, in English, software user's guides. Every now and then I do get confused
Last Friday, I wrote, in a software manual, that for a user to proceed to the next step, "there has to be 3 certificates listed in the Digital Certificates folder...". The editor du jour said that I should have written "there have to be 3 certificates listed in the Digital Certificates folder" because 3 certificates is plural". Which form is right?
In the mean time, I have replaced the whole thing with, You must have 3 certificates listed in the Digital Certificates folder of the ActivCard Gold Utilities Window
Thanks,
Emmanuel

[Angela27]

Hi,
My first language is French, but, for a living, I write, in English, software user's guides. Every now and then I do get confused
Last Friday, I wrote, in a software manual, that for a user to proceed to the next step, "there has to be 3 certificates listed in the Digital Certificates folder...". The editor du jour said that I should have written "there have to be 3 certificates listed in the Digital Certificates folder" because 3 certificates is plural". Which form is right?
In the mean time, I have replaced the whole thing with, You must have 3 certificates listed in the Digital Certificates folder of the ActivCard Gold Utilities Window
Thanks,
Emmanuel

Although what you originally wrote was OK, it didn't read that well. Your editors suggestion of have is better. Your sentence of "You must have" is much better as it is stronger English and makes it very clear that you must have these certificates.

[name_1]

Thanks for responding. Absolutely, the last sentence is much stronger (you must have...)

So, both are grammatically correct, "there has to be 3 certificates" and "there have to be 3 certificates"?
I am not sure I understand why, but intuitively I thought that "there has to be 3 certificates" was correct.

As I was rereading my question and your answer I realized that I should have introduced myself as follows:

Although my mother's tongue is French I write software user's guides in the English language.

[name_1]

Thanks for responding. Absolutely, the last sentence is much stronger (you must have...)

So, both are grammatically correct, "there has to be 3 certificates" and "there have to be 3 certificates"?
I am not sure I understand why, but intuitively I thought that "there has to be 3 certificates" was correct.

As I was rereading my question and your answer I realized that I should have introduced myself as follows:

Although my mother's tongue is French I write software user's guides in the English language.

[Tdol]

The plural form 'have' is better because there are 3 of them. You will hear the singular being used, but I can't see much reason for it here.

[munish_gupta]

I think 'There have to be" is the correct usage....