“X has/have joined”

Question

Which are correct?

1 has joined the channel.

1 have joined the channel.

5 has joined the channel.

5 have joined the channel.

Answer 1

Use has for singular, have for plural and zero. And for numbers less than 10, write out as words. So:

• One has joined the channel.
• Five have joined the channel.

Answer 2

Another approach is to avoid the helping verb entirely. Since the message is likely to be displayed at the moment the joining occurs (or very soon thereafter), you could just use " joined the channel", e.g. "1 joined the channel", "5 joined the channel".