One of the mistakes that plague speech and writing is the inappropriate and imprecise use of the possessive Moreover, this incorrect use of the word is rampant nowadays.
"A single woman usually has "; "According to the latest 2017 survey, sixty-five percent of the population has "; the person " has , does not look good on stage". This is a smile-inducing phrase.
has many girlfriends ; he usually has many girlfriends ; sixty-five percent of the population has , sixty-five percent of the population can boast of one to four friends , or: sixty-five percent of the population is friends ; unfavorable appearance .
The verb has is used precisely when we want to express these contents with it: directs with instructions; decides on something ("the board of directors so rules "); are provided for in the law on public education "); decide on the use of something ("free possession of the collection").
they have about 500 paintings by the masters of the 17th century ". It's more Hungarian this way: they have ; 500 paintings in their possession .
But we create a verbose, word-expanding expression when we express possession in a figurative sense with this word: " This boy and girl have "mistakes are not always noticed by those who do not have sufficient practice". Independently: he has great dancing skills ; he doesn't have enough practice .
He also violates the rules of native language usage even if he uses it - that is, forces it - to express possession with a figurative meaning, if the subject is not a person, but an object, concept: "the medicine has no side effects " ; "the winter tire has "; the car “ has ”; has rich customs and traditions ". Freely, clearly and nuanced: no side effects; winter tires have sufficient grip ; the car is beautiful, attractive (it has a beautiful body and trunk ); the city is rich in folk customs and traditions traditions live in the settlement , the city keeps traditions alive , the locality is active in tradition preservation activities , etc.
The wording, similar to which we have already quoted above: "The American soccer star has " is in Henye's style and makes you smile. Sabatosan: wife is fiery and passionate . In one of the Slovakian newspapers, the linguist quoted this equally amusing press sentence: "Jóska has who wants to dispose of her, wants to command her". he has a mother-in-law who wants to dispose of him (the latter word "disposes" is in its place, because here it means: "manages", conducts").
The person who uses this verb even when there is no question of possession, or even the opposite, or of some kind of concern or problem, puts it imprecisely - and also smilingly -: "the program has some small shortcomings " ; "they looked at how much debt each municipality has "; "due to a lack of money, they have arrears in payment" ; the "houses advertised with a large garden actually all have nothing as small as ". Precisely: the program is incomplete; debt the municipality has and how much it owes ; they have arrears of payment , are in arrears ; in fact, they only have .
The grammatical and stylistic error in question can and should be corrected: it can be partially omitted, even should be omitted, or it should be replaced with a meaningful expression that best fits the context.
Author: Lajos Arany
