How to forgive


Nancy, via email






Grammar question

Question: When God’s name is mentioned in the prayers of Mass, the plural have (instead of has) is used. Why? 

Beverly, via email

Answer: The grammatical answer is that the word “God” in these prayers is in the vocative case, rather than being the subject of the verb “have.” The actual subject of the verb in these prayers is either “who” or “you” as in, “O God, who ... ” or “O God, you ... ” 

Your question implies that the verb “have” is only a plural verb. It is not. It can also be the first and second person singular (e.g., I have, you have). Thus, the sentence “O God, you have every perfection” requires the second person singular form of the verb. The form “has” would not work. 

The difficultly to our ears is that the formal address “O God who ...” is rare in English today. Normally “who” is a third person singular as in “Who has it?” But we can also use “who” in the second person singular if we supply a vocative, as in, “It is you, who have the answer.” And this is what we do in the prayers. We supply the vocative “O God.” Thus the verb must be “have.” 
