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Subject-Verb Agreement -"Does everyone have"

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Subject-Verb Agreement -"Does everyone have"

by imskpwr » Thu Nov 17, 2011 11:34 am
Does everyone has/have his or her book.

Everyone is "singular". So it should be "has".

But standard english usage is "have".

Can some expert please comment which one is correct as per GMAT.[/b]
Last edited by imskpwr on Sat Nov 19, 2011 7:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by essaysnark » Fri Nov 18, 2011 9:53 am
Hi imskpwr --

"Everyone" is singular. You can remember this because it's "everyONE".

Especially in the sentence you used, with "his or her", it is definitely singular, since it's referencing an individual (this individual or that individual).

"Everybody" is also singular.

"Everybody has a chance at success at the GMAT."

Yes, the meaning is for a group, but these terms are referring to each individual member of the group separately.


Hope this helps!
EssaySnark

ETA: We should've also clarified that "everyone" as a collective noun is singular in American English. In British English, plural verbs are sometimes used with the collective nouns. That's not how it's done in the US and that's not how you'll be tested on the GMAT.

And even more important, we should've used the example: "Everyone has his or her book." This shows that "everyone" is singular.

We believe that in the sentence you used, "Does everyone have his or her book?" the word "does" is actually the verb (singular) that matches the noun "everyone" (also singular).

EssaySnark cannot recall what the verb "have" is called in that sentence (helping verb?). Regardless, you'd never say "Does everyone has his or her book?"
Last edited by essaysnark on Fri Nov 18, 2011 11:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by VivianKerr » Fri Nov 18, 2011 11:22 am
"Everyone" is singular in standard English usage, and is correct for GMAT.
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by tuanquang269 » Sat Nov 19, 2011 3:27 am
imskpwr wrote:Does everyone has/have his or her book.

Everyone is "singular". So it should be "has".

But standard english usage is "have".

Can some expert please comment which one is correct as per GMAT.
Nope, you use in this example the verb will be "have" (and always be "have") because of the existence of helping verb "Does".
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by imskpwr » Sat Nov 19, 2011 7:13 am
Please can anyone elaborate "Helping Verb" and its usage.

It is clear that "everyone" is Singular in GMAT. "Does" used in the sentence accurately indicates the same.

This sentence is taken from Manhattan Sc. "Have" is used which is correct and there is no doubt about it. But, I am still not clear with the role/usage of "have" here.
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by lunarpower » Sat Nov 26, 2011 12:57 am
imskpwr wrote:Please can anyone elaborate "Helping Verb" and its usage.

It is clear that "everyone" is Singular in GMAT. "Does" used in the sentence accurately indicates the same.

This sentence is taken from Manhattan Sc. "Have" is used which is correct and there is no doubt about it. But, I am still not clear with the role/usage of "have" here.
what no one seems to have mentioned/noticed yet is that the original sentence in this thread is a question:
does everyone have his or her book?
there must have been a question mark in the original text, as this kind of form is impermissible in a declarative sentence.

two things to say about this type of construction:

1) MOST IMPORTANTLY
*NO* GMAT SC sentence will ever be written in the form of a question.
so, you really don't have to know how these kinds of constructions work for the gmat sc section (although, of course, you will still have to know how they work if you ever plan to ask a question in written english).
therefore, i will not launch into a super-detailed explanation -- and probably no one else should, either, on this forum -- because it's irrelevant to the test.

2)
the short explanation:
what's happening here is that the question form requires a helping verb, even though the equivalent declarative sentence wouldn't necessarily require one.
here are a couple of other examples:
jake runs fast. (declarative sentence) -- note that you don't have to say "jake does run fast", although that version would also be grammatically acceptable.
does jake run fast? (question) -- it is impossible to form this question with "runs"; you have to use a helping verb in order to ask the question. therefore, the subject-verb agreement issue applies to "does", not "run".

the same principles apply here.
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by Gaurav Jain » Wed Sep 06, 2017 9:57 pm
in simple present, verb changes to their singular form as following

Run - runs
Go - goes
have- has

So you can see here, if 'have' is used as a verb in present tense you change it to 'has' for a singular subject, otherwise it remains have only.
And when you have already used 'Does', you don't have to change 'have' to 'has' anymore.

You can also understand the following usage of 'have' in other tenses.

Is he having trouble in writing?

have is used as a singular verb.

you never write it as "Is he hasing a trouble"

because 'has' as a verb only exists in present simple for a singular subject as long as you are not using the helping verb of the singular subject.
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Re: Subject-Verb Agreement -"Does everyone have"

by editdevai » Mon Nov 18, 2024 4:09 am
It is easy, but nobody could write a correct explanation. Strange!

Does everybody have their books? ( "his or her" is too long, you can use " their" instead)
Yes, the verb form is 3rd person singular with everybody, but this is a SIMPLE PRESENT QUESTION, where the main verb is HAVE!!!
So you have to use the auxiliary verb DOES in simple present 3rd person singular questions and we all know that English language does not like to show anything twice. No double negation, for example.
DOES (instead of DO) at the beginning of the sentence shows that it is 3rd person singular, so the main verb does not have to take the 's' ending.
Is it clear now?
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