X percent of takes a singular verb if the following noun is a singular or collective noun, and a plural verb if it is a plural noun. Here is a short list of 10 suggestions for subject-verb pairing. “Sentences of this kind should be treated in the plural. There are good grammatical and logical reasons for this. Compare “more than one in six Japanese are 65 or older” with “more than one in six Japanese are 65 or older. Grammatically, we are not talking about the name “one”, but about the nominal expression “one in six”, which means a group of people. Logically, the expression represents a proportion – as does “17%” or “a sixth”, both of which adopt plural verbs. `Two out of seven` and `three out of 10` also take plurals and work identically. (David Marsh and Amelia Hodsdon, Guardian Style, 3. Edition Guardian Books, 2010) “When mathematical equations are pronounced in the form of English sentences, the verb is usually in the singular: two plus two is (or equal to) four. For the same reason, themes that contain two nominal expressions linked by more are usually interpreted as singular: the slowdown in construction and bad weather have led to a weak market. This observation has led some to argue that in these sentences more acts as a preposition meaning “in addition to” […] It makes more sense to think of Plus in these uses as a conjunction that connects two subjects into a single entity that requires a single verb per fictitious agreement.

(One hundred words Almost everyone confuses and abuses. Houghton, 2004) The expression “more than one” takes on a singular verb. One thing that confuses writers is a long and complicated subject. The author gets lost and forgets which noun is actually the head of the subject sentence and instead matches the verb to the nearest noun: in English grammar, fictitious concordance refers to the concordance (or concordance) of verbs with their subjects and pronouns with their previous nouns based on meaning rather than grammatical form. Also known as synese. (Other terms for fictitious agreements include the fictitious agreement, the semantic agreement, the ad sensum agreement, the logical agreement and constructio ad sensum.) None takes a singular or plural verblage, depending on the noun that follows. Alternatively, you will often see cases where a plural verb is used with a singular noun that suggests plurality because of its meaning and context. These names include couple, trio, crowd, family, crew, crowd, generation and committee. You can see a phrase like “The couple was seen going out in a gray car” or “The crew was about to take off,” which usually combines singular subject names (couple and crew) with a plural verb. H. W. Fowler`s specifier supports the fictitious agreement in several cases.

In his dictionary of modern English, he writes in “none”: “It is a mistake to assume that the pronoun sings. In the space of a year, $5 million was spent on building a new plant, and millions more was spent on training future factory workers. (“$5 million” is a certain amount. Therefore, the verb is singular.) Every year, funds are made available to support medical research. (“Fund” is a vague term rather than a certain amount. Therefore, the verb is plural.) So fictitious chord is a natural function of language, something we`ve done for who knows how long, but haven`t noticed until recently. Paul Roberts wrote about it in Understanding Grammar in 1954, and other commentators on usage have since written about it, including luminary Bryan Garner. Still other commentators have advised following a fictitious agreement in some cases without saying, perhaps even without realizing it, that they have done so.

The subject-verb correspondence sounds simple, doesn`t it? A singular subject takes on a singular verb: The idea here is that the verb is plural to correspond to “croutons”, although the singular “there” is technically the subject of this sentence. That`s why “Croutons” is a fictional theme. For a discussion of the agreement with collective names (in American English and British English), see American English. But there are times when determining what counts as “agreement” isn`t so obvious because what looks like a singular noun is actually plural, or what looks like a plural noun is essentially singular. This concept is called a fictitious chord, also known as a fictitious concordance or synesis. The number assumes a singular verb, and a number assumes a plural verb. Here, the singular in form but plural in the sense of “pair” takes the plural verb “were” instead of the singular alternative “war”. In 2010, I wrote a column describing some of the many subject-verb matching rules, including this one: some sums of money take a singular verb, while vague amounts take a plural verb. For all the complexity, however, the core of the question remains the same: is the subject of the sentence singular or plural? Once this has been clarified, the question with the verb form comes together quite easily. Which of these two sentences is correct? Fictitious correspondence, sometimes referred to as fictitious concordance or synesis, consists of applying subject-verb correspondence rules based on the intended meaning rather than syntax.

Thus, we can pair a singular noun with a plural verb or a plural noun with a singular verb if the intended meaning so requires: some common cases of fictitious agreement include (1) collective nouns (for example, “family”); (2) plural expressions of quantity (“five years”); (3) Plural proper nouns (“United States”); and (4) some composite units with and (“Bed & Breakfast”). Oil and gas are a popular heating choice. Peanut butter combined with bread and jelly is a delicious snack. (Here, peanut butter, bread and jelly are a unit, a sandwich, so no comma is needed and we keep the singular verb.) English is a complex, vibrant, and evolving language, so once you`ve done your best to follow the basic rule of subject-verb pairing, your ear can be the best guide of all. Most English speakers are familiar with the basic rule of subject-verb pairing: a singular noun takes a singular verb and a plural noun takes the corresponding plural. It is quite simple: it is the conjugation of being the third person singular of the verb that coincides with the student; are is the third-person conjugation of the plural to be consistent with plural technical students. None of them assumes a singular or plural verb, corresponding to the noun that follows. “A lot of cars on the roads mean a lot of road accidents.” Behind the plural expression seems to be a singular term that explains the choice of the -s form of the verb.

Reference is made to a fact of circumstance, and the meaning of the expression of the plural subject can therefore be grasped by the paraphrase “The fact that there is/is X”. Plural fact expressions are especially common in sentences where the predictor is realized by the average (or related verbs such as cause, imply, imply), but we also find it in sentences with other verbs: “High production costs prevent reasonable consumer prices.” (Carl Bache, English Proficiency Essentials: A Concise Grammar. Walter de Gruyter, 2000) If a formal agreement distracts readers from your message, it`s time to apply a fictitious agreement instead. Collective nouns (team, couple, employees, etc.) assume a singular verb. But I failed to place these subject-verb-correspondence questions in the right context under the very useful generic term “fictitious agreement.” In these, we change the verbs, a process we call conjugation, to match the subject number. A singular subject such as “cat” is associated with a different verbal form than a plural subject such as “cats”. I wish I had thought about the question.. .