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I am writing a thesis in English. After finishing, I used two grammar-checking software programs to pick up grammar errors. However, confusing results for a sentence were given by the two applications.

The original sentence is as follows:

There have been a large number of studies investigating…

One application tells me there are no mistakes in this sentence; however, another one suggests that a singular verb ("has") should be used. I searched for similar sentences in the corpus; however, both of them ("has" and "have") were used for "a large number + plural nouns" in some newspapers and magazines.

Would anybody help with this? I really don't know which one is right.

Laurel
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Dong Qu
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  • @Tetsujin Plural "have" is correct. Although the plural noun "studies" is object of the preposition "of", rather than of the verb, it nevertheless determines the number of the whole noun phrase. "Number" is called a non-count quantificational noun., and it always takes a plural oblique, and thus a plural verb. – BillJ Oct 04 '23 at 12:40
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    @DongQu Are you clear now that plural "have" is correct? – BillJ Oct 05 '23 at 06:31
  • Yet another embarrassing closure. – Araucaria - Him Oct 06 '23 at 23:04

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