Why "has" but "doesn't have"

Question

Why is "has" correct in Sentence 1 and "have" correct in Sentence 2?

Earth has soil.

Mars doesn't have soil.

The obligatory tense and agreement are on DO (does) in 2, and DO takes an infinitive (have) complement. — StoneyB on hiatus, Sep 06 '17 at 20:24

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 07 '17 at 03:41

StonyB has it right in a previous comment. To show in another way, say Earth has soil, but Mars has no soil. Or, say Earth does have soil, but Mars does not have soil. To make it scientifically correct as well as grammatically so, replace "soil" with "water".

Why "has" but "doesn't have"

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