Why han (plural) when referring to a meeting

Hola Shirley S.

The reason we use “han” (plural) is that it does not refer to la reunión. It refers to the people in the meeting.

In the sentence:

The subject is implicit: ellos (the participants).

So what the sentence really means is:

“They have given the meeting as concluded because they have reached an agreement.”

Even though la reunión is singular, it is the object, not the subject of the verb. The people (ellos) are the ones who:

• han dado la reunión por zanjada

• han llegado a un acuerdo

That’s why the verb is plural.

If we wanted the meeting itself to be the subject, we would need a different structure, for example:

Here, la reunión is the subject, so we use ha (singular).

So the key idea is: the verb agrees with the subject (the people), not with la reunión.

Saludos

Silvia