number of players -simple querie.

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uptowngirl92: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 447; Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2009 9:08 pm; Location: Kolkata,India; Thanked: 7 times; GMAT Score:670

by uptowngirl92 » Sun Jun 28, 2009 7:59 pm

A number of players on the team have improved since last season.

could some one explain how this sentence is correct?"number" is a collective noun and hence should be singular.Should'nt the sentence be: "A number....HAS improved.."?

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Sun Jun 28, 2009 7:59 pm

raghavsarathy: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 166; Joined: Sat Apr 18, 2009 10:41 pm; Thanked: 9 times; GMAT Score:770

by raghavsarathy » Sun Jun 28, 2009 9:06 pm

Let me give this a shot..

Since we are speaking about the improvement of each of the players , we should use the plural "have".

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shanmugam.d: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 29; Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:32 pm; Thanked: 2 times

by shanmugam.d » Mon Jun 29, 2009 12:45 am

"The number" = singular where as "A number" = plural

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