Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[dido4]

One third of the students is / are boys.

Q: Which verb( is/are )is right in the sentence?

Thank you

[Kristea]

"is" is the correct verb.

One third ... is... (the prepositional phrase is there to confuse where the true subject is.)

Hope that helps - Kristea
_________________
"That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much." R.L. Stevenson

[MrPedantic]

That's interesting. In British English, it would be fine to use "are", with a plural noun or a noun that implied a plural, e.g.

1. One third of the cheese is mouldy.
� the cheese is a single entity; thus singular.

2. One third of all cars are red.
� the cars are separate entities; thus plural. ("One third of all cars is red" implies that one third of each individual car is red.)

With some collective nouns, both are possible, e.g.

3. One third of the population is living in poverty.
� the speaker is thinking of the population as a single entity.

4. One third of the population are obese.
� the speaker is thinking of the population as a collection of individuals.

MrP

[Lorikeet]

Hmm, "One-third of the students is boys." doesn't sound so good to me either. I think I would say, "One-third of the students are boys." Thanks for the explanation Mr. P.