Yǒu le jiǎngxuéjīn hé jiārén de zhīchí, tā xuéxí de xìnxīn bǐ yǐqián duō le hěn duō.

With the scholarship and his family’s support, he has much more confidence in his studies than before.

Breakdown of Yǒu le jiǎngxuéjīn hé jiārén de zhīchí, tā xuéxí de xìnxīn bǐ yǐqián duō le hěn duō.

• 的de: possessive particle
• 有yǒu: to have
• 他tā: he
• 和hé: and

Questions & Answers about Yǒu le jiǎngxuéjīn hé jiārén de zhīchí, tā xuéxí de xìnxīn bǐ yǐqián duō le hěn duō.

What does 有了 mean at the beginning? Is it just “have”?

有了 here means “now that (he) has / having obtained”, not just the simple “to have”.

• 有 = “to have / there is”.
• 了 after the verb marks a new situation / change of state: something that was not true before, but is true now.

So 有了奖学金和家人的支持 =
“Now that there is a scholarship and support from his family” / “Having received a scholarship and his family’s support”.

A similar pattern:

• 有了孩子以后，他们更忙了。
  After they had children, they became even busier.

Why are there two 了 in the sentence? Are they doing the same thing?

They are related but not doing exactly the same job.

1. First 了 in 有了奖学金

   • Attached directly to 有.
   • Marks a new state / completed acquisition: he has now gotten the scholarship (and support).
   • This is often called aspect 了 (了1).

2. Second 了 in 多了很多

   • Belongs to the whole predicate 多了很多.
   • Indicates that the amount of confidence has changed compared to before.
   • This is often called sentence 了 / change-of-state 了 (了2).

So:

• First 了: he now has the scholarship and support.
• Second 了: his level of confidence is now different (higher) than before.

Why does the sentence start with instead of using ?