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Subject-Verb Agreement Question

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Subject-Verb Agreement Question

by KenanGarrett » Sun Dec 02, 2012 5:29 pm
Greetings,

I'm making my way through Aristotle SC Grail, 3rd edition..and I would like someone to explain what seems to be a discrepancy to me.

page 62, 12: A group of students believes that the park should be cleaned. Explanation - The prepositional phrase "of students" makes "group" become the subject. Singular subject "group" requires singular verb "believes."

But then, in the VERY next question, number 13: A majority of citizens are against the bill. ???? Now it says "When majority is used to refer to a group of people (citizens), it requires a plural verb. What the heck? Using the reasoning from number 12, the prepositional phrase "of citizens" should make "majority" the subject. And isn't "majority," although comprised of multiple things, a singular unit? They even admit it's a group of something, and they made "group" singular in the previous question.

Thanks

-Kenan
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by Kasia@EconomistGMAT » Mon Dec 03, 2012 5:34 am
Below you will find a sentence from an RC passage from the Official Guide (13th ed):
"The majority of successful senior managers do
not closely follow the classical rational model of first
clarifying goals, assessing the problem, formulating
options, estimating likelihoods of success, making a
(5) decision, and only then taking action to implement
the decision."
As you can see "the majority of MANAGERS" is a plural subject.

The rule is as follows. With words that indicate portions-percent, fraction, part, majority, some, all, none, remainder, and so forth -look at the noun in your "of" phrase (object of the preposition) to determine whether to use a singular or plural verb. If the object of the preposition is singular, use a singular verb. If the object of the preposition is plural, use a plural verb.

Examples:
Fifty percent of the pie has disappeared.
Pie is the object of the preposition "of."
Fifty percent of the pies have disappeared.
Pies is the object of the preposition.
Kasia
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by KenanGarrett » Mon Dec 03, 2012 12:19 pm
Still confused. Can you explain your rule with the following sentence?

page 62, 12: A group of students believes that the park should be cleaned. (believes/believe)

Or does the rule not come into play, because we are talking are talking about this entire group (as opposed to a portion of it)?
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by michaels » Mon Dec 03, 2012 12:43 pm
I'm going to add a few friendly amendments to Kasia's post.

Kasia writes that when the subject phrase of a sentence is a quantity word modified by a prepositional phrase (e.g., majority of successful managers), the object of the preposition determines whether the verb is singular or plural.

(1) That's not true for the quantity term number. The number of...is always singular, while a number of...is always plural, regardless of the object of the preposition of.

(2) It's also not quite right for the quantity terms majority, minority, and plurality. I'll suggest a source for more info on those in a moment.

(3) Apart from those terms, Kasia's rules is generally reliably, so long as the preposition in question is of. If you find a quantity term followed by some other preposition, don't try to apply this rule. To be fair to Kasia, I don't know that any of these exceptional sentences show up on the GMAT, so this may be a merely academic distinction.

For more information on this topic, check out the Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction Strategy Guide. In the 5th Edition, the section on quantity words and phrases is on page 46, but I'd first read the section on indefinite pronouns, on page 45. If you happen to have our 4th edition, the relevant sections are on pages 41 and 40, respectively.

One last point: Don't look to the the RC or CR for guidance about SC. The standards enforced by the SC questions are often ignored in the other verbal material.
Last edited by michaels on Mon Dec 03, 2012 12:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by KenanGarrett » Mon Dec 03, 2012 12:49 pm
Michaels,

So what, then, is the correct answer to the original sentence?

A majority of citizens are against the bill OR A majority of citizens is against the bill

-Kenan
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by KenanGarrett » Mon Dec 03, 2012 12:55 pm
Michaels,

Also, I need to point out that you're wrong regarding The number/A number.

The number is singular :The number of students is increasing.
A number is plural: A number of students are standing outside.

And majority in and of itself is singular, but I guess when majority refers to a set of people it becomes plural. Which I guess is why "A majority of citizens are against the bill." Majority here refers to a set of people, so we use "are" instead of "is."
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by michaels » Mon Dec 03, 2012 1:38 pm
Thanks for catching that typo, Kenan. I've edited it above.

OK, about the present sentences, 12 and 13 in Aristotle SC Grail. The long and short of it is that that part of the explanation for 12 you've reproduced is unassailable. Group is not a quantity term, so none of this thread is relevant to 12. The explanation for 13, though, is put too strongly. Why? Well...

Majority usually takes a singular verb unless followed by an of phrase.
When majority is followed by an of phrase whose object is singular, then the entire noun phrase, majority+of+object, usually takes a singular verb.
When majority is followed by an of phrase whose object is plural, then the entire noun phrase, majority+of+object, usually takes a plural verb.

So, all sentences below are defensible.
The majority votes for the poll tax.
The majority of the electorate votes for the poll tax.
The majority of voters vote for the poll tax.

You may have noticed above that I kept writing weasel-words like usually and defensible, rather than stronger words like always and correct. That's because real Standard Written English, and as far as we can tell GMAT SC English, is flexible about the terms majority, minority, and plurality.

For instance, some but not all style guides recommend using a plural verb (or pronoun) with majority when an appropriate plural object is implicit. For instance, you might write, A majority of likely voters support the poll tax, but the requisite supermajority do not, because of likely voters is understood after supermajority.

Other style guides recommend that the writer use a plural verb to emphasize the several parts of the group of the majority, and a singular verb to emphasize the totality. This is pretty much where Manhattan GMAT comes down.

One thing I will say with conviction is to take a big grain of salt with any mock SC questions involving the terms majority, minority, or plurality. I wouldn't even trust ours, except that I know the specific real GMAT SC questions on which they're based. I'm not familiar with the Aristotle materials, and they may be excellent, but I don't find anything in GMAC's treatment of majority to justify the categorical claim you've asked about
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