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need help???

by readsid » Thu Jan 28, 2010 6:05 am
A large percentage of New York City residents are (native/natives) of other countries.

the answer is natives of... but y is native wrong.. ??? is it because %age of residents is taken as plural... can someone break it down for me ...

can someone also simplify the concept of "the number of " and "a number of"... rule that say when we talk about individual parts of the totality then use a plural form and when you talk about the totality itself use the singular form...??
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by prinit » Thu Jan 28, 2010 7:06 am
readsid wrote:A large percentage of New York City residents are (native/natives) of other countries.

the answer is natives of... but y is native wrong.. ??? is it because %age of residents is taken as plural... can someone break it down for me ...

can someone also simplify the concept of "the number of " and "a number of"... rule that say when we talk about individual parts of the totality then use a plural form and when you talk about the totality itself use the singular form...??

natives - will be right choice...The predecessor is plural and plural form should be used to for subject verb agreement.

The number of -- > will be always singular
A number of --> will be always plural (this is the case here)
The numbers of --> Always wrong on GMAT.
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by abhishekdrolia » Thu Jan 28, 2010 7:25 am
Can you explain why "A large percentage of New York Residents" is plural.

Is it because of "A" as we do for "A number of students" or is there any rule about percentage.
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by prinit » Thu Jan 28, 2010 7:35 am
abhishekdrolia wrote:Can you explain why "A large percentage of New York Residents" is plural.

Is it because of "A" as we do for "A number of students" or is there any rule about percentage.
Lets break it down into pieces:

A large percentage of New York City residents are (native/natives) of other countries
read it as below --
1. A large percentage of natives
2. New York City residents are

phrase A large percentage of - will always take the plural form natives
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by thephoenix » Thu Jan 28, 2010 7:38 am
readsid wrote:A large percentage of New York City residents are (native/natives) of other countries.

the answer is natives of... but y is native wrong.. ??? is it because %age of residents is taken as plural... can someone break it down for me ...

can someone also simplify the concept of "the number of " and "a number of"... rule that say when we talk about individual parts of the totality then use a plural form and when you talk about the totality itself use the singular form...??
here the verb ARE (plural) indicates that the sub to which it refering is a plural , which is residents....to parallel this we need natives........

the number of .......in GMAT is always single
A number of ......in GMAT is always plrual

but things such as
the majority of depends on the context of s/c....

for eg
1)the majority of the students in this class are hard workers.

2)the student majority is opposed to the death penalty.
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