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Subject Verb agreement

by Sul » Tue Aug 06, 2013 8:25 pm
Hi,

I wanted to know which of the following is correct.

A majority of commuters read or listen to music while travelling OR A majority of commuters reads or listens to music while travelling

I could not understand the answer given since we often use "The majority of students in this class are hard workers". Can someone please explain me why do we have "singular" form correct in the question asked while we have "plural" in the "The majority....are".

Source: Manhattan SC guide

Thanks for your help
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by [email protected] » Tue Aug 06, 2013 8:38 pm
Hi Sul,

This is a grammar issue that the GMAT will test you on at least once, so it's worth knowing.

If a subject is changed in any way, then you have to pay careful attention to the singular/plural issue.

eg. "Employees" is a plural noun
eg. Employees ARE interested in benefits.

But, if you change the subject to "A GROUP of employees"....

eg "A GROUP of employees" is a singular noun because "a group" is a singular thing.
eg. A group of employees IS interested in benefits.

In this case, we have the word MAJORITY, which is a quirky style word. Here's WHY:

If you deal with the phrase....
THE majority of....then majority is considered singular
A majority of...then majority is considered plural

THIS rule is a rare style issue, so you're not likely to see it on Test Day (and even if you do see it in an SC, then there are usually other grammar rules that can be used to help you answer the question correctly).

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Contact Rich at [email protected]
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by Sul » Thu Aug 08, 2013 9:44 pm
Hi

Thanks for your reply.

I just wanted to confirm something-

You said that "The majority of...is singular", however I saw it in the Manhattan GMAT SC that it is written as plural " The majority of students passed the exam". Could you please clarify this?

I understand that saying "The student majority is..." is correct but not sure about "The majority of students..".
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