student asking question

I don't know why "have" is used here. Shouldn't "no signs" be considered to be a singular noun as it means "nothing"?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Here, "have" is part of the present perfect continuous tense form "has/have + [be verb] + past/present participle," and it indicates that something started in the past and is still happening in the present. And then to answer the second part of your question, "signs" is plural since there are multiple possible signs that could be detected but have not been. If the singular version "sign" was used, it could mean they were only looking for one possible sign and not all the possible signs of life. But! It would still make sense here. It just sounds more final and absolute as a singular~ as if there is no possibility for even one sign of life. Ex: I have been going to dance lessons every Tuesday. Ex: There have been no signs of John coming to pick us up. He hasn't texted or honked outside. Ex: I haven't gotten even a single sign from John that he's quitting his job. => slightly more dramatic.

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