Sentence Correction

When I see such rule-sets, I cannot help but wonder how you guys internalize these rules. Is it not hard to keep in mind such minute rules. There are way too many combinations to remember.

Now obviously, we need to know what should be the number of verb. That is why I use the meaning as a guiding light. Please read below. The following is a copy and paste from my previous post:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/usage-of-one ... tml#388467

See if the analysis below helps. Also, be sure to re-visit the framework or rules that you had come up with earlier.

"One of the" Analysis
You know that "one of the..." as a subject is always singular since we are talking about ONLY ONE entity.

However, when a relative pronoun clause is placed next to it, the decision of using singular or plural verb depends on the context of the sentence.

1: If the relative pronoun clause describes all the entities, then plural verb should be used.
2: If it describes just the ONE of the many entities, then singular verb should be used.

So in essence, it is all context driven...
Lets consider some examples:

1A: One of the apples was rotten. (one of the...as subject)
Here "one of the .." is the subject. And hence singular. From the context as well, we are emphasizing that only 1 apple was rotten - thus singular verb was.

1B: One of the apples that were rotten was mistakenly used in the pudding.
Notice here: We are saying that "Only 1 rotten apple" was used in the pudding.
But we are also saying that all apples were rotten.

1C: The only one apple that was rotten was mistakenly used in the pudding.
Again only 1 rotten apple was used in the pudding.
But now the sentence implies that this was the only 1 rotten apple.

So as you can see when relative pronoun clauses are used after the phrase "one of the noun", selection of plural vs. singular verb depends on the meaning of the sentence. So it is very essential to understand what the sentence implies.

Lets take another set of examples:

2A: Dhoni is one of those cricketers who do modeling assignments.
Lets simplify this sentence:

Dhoni is one of those cricketers
who do modeling assignments.

This sentence implies that many cricketers do modeling assignments and Dhoni is just one of them.
"who" refers to "cricketers" and hence is plural. Thus the plural verb -do.

2B: Dhoni is the only one of those cricketers who does modeling assignments.

In this sentence the context has changed. Now the author of the sentence is stating the fact that Dhoni is the only cricketer who does modeling assignments. So as you can see the word 'only' changes the emphasis in the sentence.

So as I always say, understand the meaning of the sentence and then select correct grammar to use to express that meaning.

2A: Dhoni is one of those cricketers who do modeling assignments.
2B: Dhoni is the only one of those cricketers who does modeling assignments.

Hi gmatjeet,

It all boils down to what we want to communicate through the sentence. So sentence 2A makes sense to you. But you are confused with sentence 2B. So lets look at 2B more carefully. Focus on the words "the only". Now think about how you interpreted this sentence:

Also why cant we interpret the statement as "Dhoni is only one of the cricketers and all those do modelling"

If all the cricketers do modelling then what is the point of saying that Dhoni is THE ONLY one of these cricketers. If you are saying that DHONI is indeed THE ONLY ONE, then what he does must be unique and that is what makes him the ONLY ONE (in the context of this sentence this unique thing is doing modeling assignments).

Hope this helps.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Payal