Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[sejpdw]

"He insists that he has to work a lot."

I've seen this sentence in a book.
Many grammar books say that if someone demands that something happens, we use "verb" without -s, or -ed. And British people use "should verb" in that situation. If so, why is the writer using "has" instead of "have"? Is that because "has to" functions as "should"? What do you think?

[Bluegum]

This sentence is correct. Firstly, "insists" here doesn't mean that he demands something happens; it's more like the meaning of "to assert persistently" (OED).
"Has to" here means "must". So you could paraphrase the sentence "He is adamant that he must work a lot."