Korean Job Discussion Forums

[raewon]

I have another subject/verb agreement headache. I've asked about percents before, and in that case, agreement depends on the noun, right?

More than 80 percent of the children are ....
More than 30 percent of the pie is...

But what about in the case of "million tons of"?
For example:

Six million tons of trash enter/enters the ocean daily.

I can find both "enter" and "enters" used on the net, but nothing in my grammar books to confirm which one is correct.

Thanks for any help with this one, and I hope everyone is enjoying the cold weather.

[Roman Holiday]

Trash is uncountable... hence x tons of trash... five cans of trash.

With an uncountable noun you can replace with the pronoun 'it'.

So you have 'it enters the ocean'. You couldn't say 'it enter the ocean'.

And so you have 'six million tons of trash enters the ocean daily' as the correct grammar.


Enjoying summer here.

[schwa]

I'd suggest the operative subject (in terms of meaning) is "trash" entering the water, not "tons." Therefore:
"Six million tons of trash enters the ocean daily."
Or: "One ton of rotten apples get thrown out every day."

Similar pattern to your percent conundrum, isnt it? That's how I'd probably write those sentences.

But a case can also be made for agreement between the quantity and the verb if that's the emphatic point in context:
"Six million tons of trash enter the ocean daily."
"One ton of rotten apples gets thrown out every day."

Them's my thoughts.

[jleblanc]

I asked at work (I'm an editor and we have some pretty great editors here) and it is treated differently depending on where you're from. The American way of handing it is to look to the "six million tons" to decide the verb, but the British way is to look to "trash," so it's not really a helpful answer (it's a style choice). What my own boss suggested is to go with what sounds natural. Either way, you're technically not wrong unless you're supposed to be following a particular style guide, which is an editing issue and not an EFL teaching issue.

[Roman Holiday]

[The Cosmic Hum]

double post

[The Cosmic Hum]

[wooden nickels]

[jleblanc]

[FriendlyDaegu]

[raewon]

Thanks for all the replies. I've read through them all looking for a consensus, but I'm not sure that I've found one. To my ear,
Six million tons of trash enters the ocean daily.
sounds natural. But I've learned long ago that the eat can't always be trusted. I don't understand why I can't find examples such as this one in the grammar books I have, as they go in depth on subject/verb agreeement. I wonder if I've overlooked one. As The Cosmic Hum stated, I also believe this is strictly a grammar issue, but I'm not sure what the rule dictates... for American English or for British English (if the rules are different). If the rules are indeed different, I think I would have anticipated the opposite of what jleblanc stated.

[isitts]

[Seon-bee]

Does anyone actually have a reference book to look in?

There are always exceptions to the rule.

"Rule 1. A subject will come before a phrase beginning with of. This is a key rule for understanding subjects. The word of is the culprit in many, perhaps most, subject-verb mistakes."

"Rule 6. With words that indicate portions—a lot, a majority, some, all, etc.—Rule 1 given earlier is reversed, and we are guided by the noun after of. If the noun after of is singular, use a singular verb. If it is plural, use a plural verb."

Six tons is not a portion; it's a quantity.

The rule for quantities?

"Quantities: When they refer to total amounts, quantities and measures are singular. When they refer to individual units that can be counted, quantities and measures are plural."

For this reason, I'm going with ENTERS.

[jvalmer]

[The Cosmic Hum]