Korean Job Discussion Forums

[machoman]

"one in every two shapes IS"

or

"one in every two shapes ARE"



i thought are is correct, but my student tells me the worksheet she has says IS is correct. thoughts?

[tatertot]

I would say that "is" is correct because the subject in the sentence is "one (shape)," which is singular. The "two shapes" aren't the subject, but a modifier of the subject "one (shape)."

But I could be wrong.

[T-J]

Substitute "one in every two", with "half the" and I think you have your answer.

[Globutron]

[comm]

I have 6 apples. One in every two are green.

It has to be "are" because I'm using the word "one" to refer to 3 green apples.

It would be "is" if you said:
I have two apples. One of the two is green.

[The Cosmic Hum]

[crisdean]

why is this so difficult?

shapes <--- plural therefore are
doesn't matter if you're using the "one in two" or the "half of the" statement
similarly with the apples example sure it's in a different sentence but we are still referring to the plural apples hence are

then for class and samsung both are singular (doesn't matter that they are collective terms, they are still a single group of students and a single corporation) thus 'is' is the correct form.

simple concept people.

[Privateer]

[The Cosmic Hum]

[Oreovictim]

[roknroll]

fractions (percent, or some,half,none,more, all, etc.) of a single thing--you use the singular form [is] of a verb afterwards; and fractions of a number of things--you use a plural form [are] of a verb afterwards.

Two thirds of the planet's surface is covered in water.
Half of the forest was removed.

Half of the trees were removed
Half of the shapes are squares.


--> this is the case of the object of the preposition. and yes, OV, the object of a preposition does determine the form of the verb when the above listed noun/pronoun subjects (fractions: some, half= 1 in every 2....or fractions of a number of things, ie. shapes) are followed by a prepositional phrase.

==>whereas, a phrase that comes between the subject and the verb.....the verb agrees with the subject, not with a noun/pronoun in the phrase:

One of the shapes is square.

One of the two apples is green.


Collective nouns:

Use a singular verb if you think of the group as a single unit, and use a plural verb if you think of the group as a number of individuals.

The government has said it is willing to go to war.
The government have made up their minds to go to war.

(Half the class is failing--sounds right to me because the alternate means half of the students in the class...still one unit with the use of class, otherwise could just use half the students are..)

(Samsung is having a sale...again, one unit sounds correct to me as it's likely that all the Samsung stores are having a sale).

[daskalos]

We're talking about two issues in this thread. Let's get the obvious out of the way first - US English and British English are different. Brits treat singular collective nouns (the team, the company, the crew) as plural, as far as their verbs go. It sounds very strange to my American ear, but I accept it and teach the difference to my students. Either is correct.

For the plural object in a subject phrase, the number of the subject should determine the number of the verb. (With the caveat posted above about fractions of singular and plural nouns.)

Or, I suppose, we could just go with the trained linguist's notion that any utterance from a native speaker is correct, which seems as idiotic to me as saying that any group that wants to say 2+2=22 is correct.