Huawei’s range of smartphones have become an increasingly popular choice for tech lovers around the world, with the notable exception of the US – in fact, the company sells more smartphones than anyone other than Samsung.
Should it be “has” instead of “have”?
Thanks.
Yes, I think ‘has’ would work here as well:
Huawei’s range of smartphones has become an increasingly popular choice among tech lovers around the world, with the notable exception of the US - in fact, the company sells more smartphones than anyone but Samsung.
To me,
The subject is Huawei’s range of smartphones.
The question is range or range of smartphones.
The logic is range of smartphones.
The reality is smartphones.
The verb is have.
The conclusion is the verb is acceptable.
Torsten, technically, I’d agree.
But semantically, I think smartphones of a wide range (in terms of quality, price, efficacy, utility etc) are popular among tech lovers.
I flinched when I read “have”.
Obviously, the sentence should be “Huawei’s range … has become …”
EXCEPT
I also agree with Anglophile that the focus of the sentence is not “range” but “smartphones “, but the word “smartphones” is buried in a prepositional phrase.
Can the subject of a sentence be a noun with its prep phrase? I don’t know, but I still flinched when I read the original.
My solution would be to delete “range of”. It doesn’t add anything to the sentence.
“Huawei“s cellphones have become an increasingly popular choice …”
BTW, I also thought about the difference between AmE and BrE when using “have” with a noun such as “company”, but I don’t believe that applies here.
This is exactly what I was thinking. Then I noticed that Arinker already said it. “Range of” seems almost redundant to me.
I think a bigger question is tense. I’m not a grammar person, but it seems to me like “increasingly” gives a clue.
[xxx] become an increasingly popular choice
[xxx] become a popular choice