tenses
Posted: 12 Jun 2023, 11:02
"This can be a good one to be [have] on your shelf"
in this sentence, can "have" be used as mentioned here?
in this sentence, can "have" be used as mentioned here?
Hi,
Technically, including “be” in the adjectival infinitive phrase “to be on your shelf” is not an error; however, this statement seems to imply possession of the item (book?), so “have” would be preferable. The verb “be” shows that something exists, but in this case, the book doesn’t just exist—a person owns it, so they "have" it. This link is not exhaustive in explaining the difference, but it helps a bit:
https://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/ ... have-verbs