SC- house Vs houses

[goelmohit2002]

Can someone please tell which ones are correct and why ?

1. Three percent of country population own "houses".
2. Three percent of country population own "a house".
3. Three out of every 100 people own "houses".
4. Three out of every 100 people own "a house".

[vaishalijain7]

1 & 2 are out as three percent of the population is singular. out of 3 & 4, 4 looks better I guess because '3' suggests that 3 out of 100 people own more than one house.

[goelmohit2002]

But isn't #4 mean to say that 3 people own "a" single house ?

[goelmohit2002]

1 & 2 are out as three percent of the population is singular. out of 3 & 4, 4 looks better I guess because '3' suggests that 3 out of 100 people own more than one house.

Thanks. What would have been the case if #1 and #2 would have been:

1. Three percent of country population owns "houses".
2. Three percent of country population owns "a house".

[rahulg83]

I think 2nd one is better. it just "sounds" right. Though i don't know which grammar rule to apply here..

[goelmohit2002]

But isn't #4 mean to say that 3 people own "a" single house ?

Experts kindly share your opinion about this.....

[goelmohit2002]

1 & 2 are out as three percent of the population is singular. out of 3 & 4, 4 looks better I guess because '3' suggests that 3 out of 100 people own more than one house.

Thanks. What would have been the case if #1 and #2 would have been:

1. Three percent of country population owns "houses".
2. Three percent of country population owns "a house".

Can someone please tell what is the difference between above two sentences ?

[ketkoag]

1 & 2 are out as three percent of the population is singular. out of 3 & 4, 4 looks better I guess because '3' suggests that 3 out of 100 people own more than one house.

Thanks. What would have been the case if #1 and #2 would have been:

1. Three percent of country population owns "houses".
2. Three percent of country population owns "a house".

Can someone please tell what is the difference between above two sentences ?

i think first one is correct as here three percent of population is a singular term with many people in it.. we use the singular term for the correct verb i.e. owns. now, the word "houses" is used to represent all the houses of these people, whether each one has one house or more than one house..

but in second statement "a house" represents that all those three percent of people have only one house together. i cannot say that this statement is incorrect but it depends upon the situation in which u r using all the above terms.. it would be much better to understand the terms if u have any examples or the question that use these terms..

[tanviet]

this is "distributive plural" in general grammar book. pls, read a grammar book for this.

in short, all 4 choice are acceptable in general grammar. gmat dose not test this. only one question is the OG 10, the questions next to the last one in OG 10 test this. the question is " the vocal tract is without language..."

[goelmohit2002]

this is "distributive plural" in general grammar book. pls, read a grammar book for this.

in short, all 4 choice are acceptable in general grammar. gmat dose not test this. only one question is the OG 10, the questions next to the last one in OG 10 test this. the question is " the vocal tract is without language..."

There is one more question in OG 10 for this...

"one out of every 32 people now own a bicycle"....

So it is not so easy to forget about this rule in GMAT

Can someone please help.

[ketkoag]

this is "distributive plural" in general grammar book. pls, read a grammar book for this.

in short, all 4 choice are acceptable in general grammar. gmat dose not test this. only one question is the OG 10, the questions next to the last one in OG 10 test this. the question is " the vocal tract is without language..."

There is one more question in OG 10 for this...

"one out of every 32 people now own a bicycle"....

So it is not so easy to forget about this rule in GMAT

Can someone please help.

'one out of EVERY 32 people' clearly means plural noun coz it would be 2 among 64 people, 3 among 96.... so on hence plural.. i don't think that we can assume that there are 32 people only coz use of mentioning EVERY is to indicate that their are more at least 2 pairs of 32 people..

[goelmohit2002]

this is "distributive plural" in general grammar book. pls, read a grammar book for this.

in short, all 4 choice are acceptable in general grammar. gmat dose not test this. only one question is the OG 10, the questions next to the last one in OG 10 test this. the question is " the vocal tract is without language..."

There is one more question in OG 10 for this...

"one out of every 32 people now own a bicycle"....

So it is not so easy to forget about this rule in GMAT

Can someone please help.

'one out of EVERY 32 people' clearly means plural noun coz it would be 2 among 64 people, 3 among 96.... so on hence plural.. i don't think that we can assume that there are 32 people only coz use of mentioning EVERY is to indicate that their are more at least 2 pairs of 32 people..

Probably I was not clear in my original post. Can someone please tell which one is better among the below two and why?

1. three out of every 32 people now own a bicycle
2. three out of every 32 people now own bicycle"s".

[graghukalyan]

Hi goelmohit2002,

1. three out of every 32 people now own a bicycle
2. three out of every 32 people now own bicycle"s".

I think its the first statement which is correct.

We are referring to each person in the set of 3 out of the total 32. So the first one looks more grammatically appropriate rather than the 2nd one.

Need more opinions around this ?