Jamaica has or have snakes? Which is correct? Explain
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Can you be more specific about what you find confusing about this?– CatijaCommented Jun 19, 2018 at 22:27
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1Jamaica is a country and a singular noun, which means a singular verb shall be used after it (like in "Japan has four distinct seasons" or "America's got talent" ("has got" but not "have got").– EngurooCommented Jun 19, 2018 at 23:26
1 Answer
Normally, the verb agrees with the subject in number, so
This region has snakes.
Those regions have snakes.
Countries are normally singular:
Jamaica has snakes.
even if grammatically they look plural:
The Seychelles has snakes.
The United States has snakes.
What might be confusing you is that collective nouns (nouns denoting a collection of people) sometimes take a plural verb when the sense is that your are talking about what the people do or are, rather than what the group as a whole is:
Manchester United has/have scored a goal.
The committee is/are worried.
And this can even apply to names of countries when it means a the national team in some competition:
Jamaica has/have scored a goal.
Using plural in these cases is more common in British than American English.