A few weeks ago, someone sent us an email to the ESL library asking if the grammar on our homepage is correct. In the lesson presented on the protests in the Middle East, this sentence caused confusion: “In recent years, there has been an increasing number of peaceful and violent protests.” The person wanted to know if.” there was a growing number of… ” was right. Shouldn`t it be.” there is a growing number of… »? This is where it gets even more confusing. In English, “the number of” does not mean “many”. Tell your students to think of it as a number. Although this number can be large, the purpose of this expression is to compare this number/set with another number/set. For example, we would say, “The number of crimes in New York has increased this year.” This year, 56 more crimes could be committed than last year. Another example is: “The number of people taking the test today is higher than yesterday.” There could be 20 more people taking the test today. For more practice, see if your students can choose these phrases on the Internet, in newspapers, or in magazines. This is also a very common grammar question in Part 5 of the TOEIC test, so make sure that any students you have who are preparing to write this test remember the correct subject-verb agreement for these expressions. Hi Ozzie, sorry for the late reply.
For some reason, I haven`t received any notification regarding your comment. To answer your question, no, we can never use “a certain number of” with countless names. You could use “a lot of,” that is, “a large/large amount of evidence.” I have a large number of birds The number of birds I have is large, the expression of which is suitable for use Connectives, phrases combined with, coupled with, accompanied, added, with, with and as well, do not change the number of the subject. These sentences are usually delimited by commas. Another pitfall for writers is the shift from a strict grammatical chord to a “fictitious chord,” that is, the verb is consistent with the term or idea the subject is trying to convey, whether singular or plural: the subject-verb chord seems simple, doesn`t it? A singular subject adopts the singular verb: “Even in ordinary prose, a number of expressions are almost always abbreviated and can be used without first writing them.” (The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition, p. 16). 488) Which one is the right one? The number of 28 obese adolescents or a number of 28 obese adolescents? Tell your students to see it this way: one number means several. Becaus “several + plural noun” takes a plural verb, you would say “A lot of cars are on the highway during rush hour.” Similarly, you would say, “A number of cars are on the highway during rush hour.” What about the “growing body of evidence”? the growing body of evidence shows this.
is that correct? Can we use “number of” with countless names? Subject-verb correspondence is usually quite simple in English. Consult each manual for the general rules. However, topics that introduce the idea of quantity require additional rules of thumb. Here are some that are useful for academic writing. Here is a short list of 10 suggestions for subject-verb pairing. I hope this clarifies things for you and your students! I hope that the number of questions they have about these expressions is now zero. :) It is important to remember that this expression acts as a quantifier. Thus, although it is a singular noun “number”, it fulfills the same role in the sentence as a quantifier such as “many”, “many of”, “many of”, “hundreds”, etc.
You would say, “A group of people started the test,” just as you would say, “A lot of people started the test.” If majority/minority means an indefinite number of more or less than 50%, use a singular verb: this is a question that often confuses our students! The problem is that the subject-verb match for the expressions “a number of” and “the number of” is different. Here`s how I usually explain it to my students: Hello Zubaida, you`re right that a singular verb is needed in your sentence to match the “number of,” but there`s a problem with your verb tense. You could put it this way: – The number of parents who support their children is established. – The number of parents who provide for their children has been determined. – The number of parents who support their children has been established. “The number of x” takes a singular verb; “a number of x”, a plural verb. (Einsohn, A., The Copyeditor`s Handbook, p. 344) They take a singular verb when referring to a single quantity: Yes. It`s really useful for my confused students.
Thank you again. Oil and gas are a popular heating choice. Peanut butter combined with bread and jelly is a delicious snack. (Here, peanut butter, bread and jelly are a unit, a sandwich, so no comma is needed and we keep the singular verb.) This website is protected by reCAPTCHA and Google`s privacy policy and terms of use apply. Every boy looks forward to the meeting; everyone is well prepared. A small minority say they are in favour of the proposal. For a singular or non-singular noun or phrase, use a singular verb: For a collective noun, use a singular or plural verb, depending on whether you want to highlight the individual group or its individual members: a quarter of the books have disappeared. (“Books” is a plural noun) A quarter of the sand is white. (“Sand” is a singular noun) Collective nouns (team, couple, employees, etc.) assume a singular verb. Fill out this form to create an account and stay up to date with all events here in the ESL library. .