Question: I was studing how to say school subjects in mandarin and I saw this sentence:

我最喜欢的科目**有**艺术，中文和化学
(My favorite school subjects are art, chinese and chemistry)

Why the use of 有 in this sentecence?

Could I say/write: 我最喜欢的科目是**是**艺术，中文和体育

Answer: 
> 
> 我最喜欢的科目有艺术，中文和化学。
> 
> 
> 

With 有, it offers a category. 我最喜欢的科目 is a category and in this category there are 艺术，中文和化学. So the sentence can be paraphrased as ***在***我最喜欢的科目***当中***有艺术，中文和化学.

With 是, it offers an equation like A = B. 我最喜欢的科目 = 艺术，中文和化学.

So both are correct.
Both should be fine, it might be easier to think about those ones as some sort of a colon symbol(its basically what it does in this context).

a colon symbol referencing this site <https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/punctuation/grammar-colon-usage.html>

"Use a colon to introduce an item or list, if the list comes after a complete sentence or independent clause..."