Error No.: 12
Error: Somewhere has something
Some common examples
1. * Hong Kong has a lot of rubbish.
2. * In the park has many children.
3. * In the classroom has a plant.
4. * The table has a lot of books.
5. * Here has a lot of people.
Core grammatical problem
Students misuse a noun (e.g. Hong Kong), an adverbial of place (e.g. in the park), or an
adverb (e.g. here) at the subject position of a sentence which carries the verb ‘have’ e.g.
*Hong Kong has a lot of rubbish.
*In the park has many children.
Probable causes of this structural problem
L1-related factors:
1. Corresponding Chinese/Cantonese sentences are acceptable.
e.g. 6. 香港有很多垃圾。
7. 在公園裏有很多小朋友。
2. Students are not aware that the Chinese 有 is expressed in two different ways in English:
a. The possessive ‘have’ as in
e.g. 8. I have a book .
e.g. 9. The house has a big balcony.
The first sentence means ‘I possess the book’. The second sentence means ‘The balcony is
one inherent part of the house’.
b. The existential ‘there + be’ as in
e.g. 10. There is a book on the table.
This sentence means ‘A book is now on the table’. The structure is used to describe the
existence of something at a place.
Correction procedure
To help students (Ss) overcome the structural problem relating to the use of nouns or adverbials
as subjects in such sentence as:
Hong Kong has a lot of rubbish.
the teacher (T) can go through the following procedure with students (Ss ):
1. T shows one correct and one incorrect sentence:
(i) The table has four legs.
(ii) *The table has a lot of books.
2. T asks Ss, ‘Do the legs in sentence (i) belong to the table?’
3. T asks Ss, ‘Can we say that the legs are the table’s legs or the legs of the table?’
4. T asks Ss, ‘Do the books in sentence (ii) belong to the table?’
5. T asks Ss ‘Can we say that the books are the table’s books or the books of the table?’
6. T tells Ss that sentence (i) is correct but sentence (ii) is wrong.
7. T tells Ss that to rewrite sentence (ii), we have to use the THERE IS/ARE structure.
8. T repeats steps 1–7 using other similar examples with a noun as the subject.
9. T repeats steps 1–7 using examples with an adverbial as the subject.
(iii) In the park has many children.
Follow-up exercise
Correct the following sentences.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Next to my bed had a table.
The room has many people.
In this district has no school.
The forest has many birds.
In the New Territories still have land for development.