Number of the verb

[Sangeetha]

hi,

please do help me out with this...

1:Two-thirds of the population is illiterate.
2:Two-thirds of the population are farmers.

Can u please explain why do we use singular verb in the 1st sentence n plural in 2nd sentence???

Both refer to measure(Two-thirds) n both have the same prepositional phrase( of population) ....

u could say that number of the verb depends on the noun of the prepositional phrase (population) , then what applies here??

Guess Population is plural???

Am totally lost.....

[Alan]

Hi Sangeetha,

In both cases you can use the plural form of the verb. In other words 2 thirds are illiterate/farmers. With a collective noun you can use both singular or plural forms as in: The Government is/are increasing taxes. It depends whether you consider the collective noun as a single entity or a number of individuals.

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Prepositions

[Hieu]

Hi Sangeetha,

I don't know where you read those examples. I mean that I don't know your material sources were written in American English or British English. So I only give you some of my opinions below:

1) In American English, people trend to use a singular verb after a fraction. Of course, if a fraction is used with a singular noun or an uncountable noun, the verb is obviously singular.

2) If the noun is singular but represents a group of people, the verb is singular in American English but in BRITISH ENGLISH it may be in PLURAL or SINGULAR.

Please re-see the authors of your reading materials and let me know. I am going to show you what rule is applied here.
Hope this helping you.

Regards,
Pham Trung Hieu

[Sangeetha]

hi hieu,

thanx for your explanation...
The book is written by an American author:Norman Lewis.

According to him in the 1st sentence 'measure has a collective meaning' accounting for the singulaity of the verb....
not so for the 2nd stmt....
How do u take a particular noun which is actually plural (population) as both singular n plural???

regards
Sangeetha

[Alan]

Hi Sangeetha,

Let's not get too fixated about rules and grammar but get to the meaning behind the word. Clearly a singular subject usually requires a singular verb but then some nouns although singular in grammar have a hidden plural identity. Population is an example. We say the population of this country is 10 million. We could just about say: The population at large ARE not happy with the new regualtions because here we are thinking of a large number of people rather than a simple statistic. We would then go on to say: THEY feel that the regulations are unfair Surely this is better than: it feels the regulations are unfair.

The point I am trying to make is that sometimes it is easy to be carried away with some definition in a grammar book and forget that language is free to express itself in a s many ways as possible.

Alan
_________________
English as a Foreign Language
You can read my EFL story Are you fancy free?

[Hieu]

Hi Sangeetha,

OK. word "population" in two sentences that you gave is a collective noun. Those two sentences show two ways in which a singular or a plural verb is used with a collective noun. Please understand that "population" in the two sentences is not a plural noun.
By the way, I give you two main usages of a collective in a sentence to help you master them.
Common collective nouns are usually singular, so they are often followed by a singular verb. In some cases, they are plural if the writer want to express the individual members acting separately.
Hope it make you clear.

Thanks,
Pham Trung Hieu

[Sangeetha]

hi,

thanx Alan n Hieu... That was very helpful.