Number Agreement
The Scope of Number Agreement
1.Thiscontractincludesaparagraph that limits the contract’s nondisclosure clause.
2.Thesecontractsincludeparagraphs that limit the contracts’ nondisclosure clauses.
Complex Subjects
3.One of the law’s most controversial features is its expiration after two years.
4.Hugh Rodman, an officer in the United States Navy who served during the Spanish-American War and World War I, did tours at the Hydrographic Office and at the United States Naval Observatory, and performed several years of survey duty along the Alaskan and British Columbian coasts, was born in 1859.
5.Holistic medicine is a category of therapies that use both scientific and traditional methods.
6.Holistic medicine is a category of therapies that includesacupuncture, chiropractic, naturopathy, and homeopathy.
Pronouns
Always singular: another, anything, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, one, somebody, someone, something
7.Another of the drug’s applications is as an anticancer agent.
8.Either of the drug’s active ingredientsis toxic by itself.
Always plural: both, few, several
9.Both of the drug’s active ingredients are used to treat herpes.
10.Few of the drug’s active ingredients have been isolated.
Variable: all, most, neither, some
11.Some [All] of the moneywas spent on the project.
12.Some [All] of the fundswere spent on the project.
13.Neither of the accounts was [were] was tapped for the project.
Note: Some grammarians and reference books insist that neither should be used only with a singular verb, but a plural verb is often used when the meaning is plural.
Nouns of Measurement
14.Half of the samplewas analyzed.
15.One-fifth of the sampleswere analyzed.
Compound Subjects with or
16.Either a high temperature or huge crowdsare a good reason to avoid the beach.
17.Either huge crowds or a high temperature is a good reason to avoid the beach.
“Number of Plural Noun” as Subject
18.The number of samples was determined by the length of the study.
19.A number of samples were unacceptable for the study.
“There be...”
20.There were several unfamiliar people at the conference.
21.There was an unfamiliar person at the conference.
“data”
22.Thesedata from the experiment were lost due to human error.
23.This data from the experiment was lost due to human error.
24.A piece of data from the experiment was lost due to human error.
25.A datum was lost due to human error.
26.These datums from the experiment were lost due to human error.
In Latin, the singular is datum and the plural is data, so some people believe that data should be regarded only as a plural in English as well. In actual English writing and speech, however, data is usually treated as a singular uncountable noun. (The plural datums given in example 26 is rare.)
Other Latin Plurals
SingularPlural
alumnusalumni
colloquiumcolloquia
criterioncriteria
nucleusnuclei
phenomenonphenomena
radiusradii
spectrumspectra
symposiumsymposia
Number Agreement Exercises
What is the correct present-tense form of each boldface verb?
1.The factors that result from the specific social environmentbe considered in our research.
2.Economic phenomena be difficult to study empirically.
3.Something unidentified in the samples be causing errors in our results.
4.There have been few of the symposia that have been well-attended.
5.About 37% of the population support the current administration.
6.When searching for references, focus on information or other criteria that narrow your search.
7.The number of volunteers in the study sample determine the accuracy of the results.
8.A number of volunteers, including all of the college students, have decided to quit the study.
9.The rate of interest is affected by the number of investors who purchase the bonds.
10.Most of the researchdepend on support from the government.
11.Some of the studies depend on support from the government.
12.Everything in the studies depend on support from the government.
13.Over one-third of the victims have yet to be identified.
14.The data from the test have to be recorded and analyzed immediately.
15.University of Tokyo alumni do outstanding research.