Have or Has?

[emel28]

The set of circumstances Have made me startle from my thoughts at the Boomerang cafe.
The set of circumstances Has made me startle from my thoughts at the Boomerang cafe.
Is have or has ​correct?

 

[Tarheel]

Well, I wouldn't use either word, but if you insist on picking one use has, thus:

The set of circumstances has made me startle from my thoughts at the Boomerang Cafe.
​

However, why not just say:

The set of circumstances made me startle from my thoughts ....
​

Hm, not much context there, but perhaps better would be something like:

The plates and saucers crashing to the floor broke my concentration.




​

 

[emsr2d2]

I find "has/had made me startle from my thoughts" totally unnatural.

The circumstances/events startled me from my thoughts ...

 

[emel28]

I like that sentence, but since this is translation perhaps it would be too liberal to use that version.

 

[Tarheel]

I agree with emsr2d2 that the sentence in question is unnatural, thus my suggestion. (One possibility. If I had more context perhaps I could suggest a better one.)

 

[emel28]

The set of circumstances have made me startle from my thoughts at the Boomerang cafe. In Danilovgrad, if not a printing error, I have drunk a beer, here, in front of me, a double scotch. So, wasted.

 

[bhaisahab]

The set of circumstances have made me startle from my thoughts at the Boomerang cafe. In Danilovgrad, if not a printing error, I have drunk a beer, here, in front of me, a double scotch. So, wasted.

None of that makes any sense to me.

 

[emsr2d2]

The set of circumstances have made me startle from my thoughts at the Boomerang cafe. In Danilovgrad, if not a printing error, I have drunk a beer, here, in front of me, a double scotch. So, wasted.

Where is this quote from? If someone else wrote it, please give their name and the title of the piece (so I can avoid reading the rest of it!) If you wrote it, please try to write it again using different words so we can understand it.

 

[Tarheel]

The set of circumstances have made me startle from my thoughts at the Boomerang cafe. In Danilovgrad, if not a printing error, I have drunk a beer, here, in front of me, a double scotch. So, wasted.

There are some problems with that (as previously noted). For starters, a set of circumstances doesn't do anything. Frankly, I think the person who wrote that was wasted at the time he composed that stuff. Perhaps he should lay off the booze. Or he shouldn't drink and write.

;-)

 

[emel28]

Thanks everybody for you constructive criticism.

The writer is ok (but judging by the text he was a bit drunk), it is the translation that is messed up. I was primarily interested in the sentence construction since I don't always agree with the way things turn out in class and want to check here.

The name of the piece is Looney Tunes by the writer Svetislav Basara. We were translating it from Serbian into English and I guess things got lost in translation.

 

[Tarheel]

Thanks everybody for your constructive criticism.

The writer is ok (but judging by the text he was a bit drunk), it is the translation that is messed up. I was primarily interested in the sentence construction since I don't always agree with the way things turn out in class and want to check here.

The name of the piece is Looney Tunes by the writer Svetislav Basara. We were translating it from Serbian into English and I guess things got lost in translation.

I wonder if I posted stuff while I was drunk if anybody would notice the difference.

;-)

 

[emel28]

It might make this text easier to translate.