Timeline for Technicalities about "%"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
6 events
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| Jun 15, 2020 at 7:40 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
Commonmark migration
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| May 5, 2013 at 4:58 | comment | added | Ben Mullikin | Collectives may take either a plural or a singular noun according to whether they are considered one thing (of which there are many parts) or many things (which are alike in kind). Also, as was pointed out in the original question, the % sign is short hand for the propositional phrase "per one hundred." But such a prepositional phrase has no bearing on the number of the subject (and therefore the plurality of the verb), nor on any following prepositional phrase (such as the partitive genitive in this case). | |
| May 4, 2013 at 21:23 | comment | added | rajah9 | Thank you, Edwin. Yes, you are observing my US sensibilities as to subject-verb agreement. I might substitute "About 90% of the zebras are..." and "About 90% of the question is..." to work on both sides of the pond. | |
| May 4, 2013 at 21:06 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | I assume that you're implying that 'neighbours' etc, being plural in form, triggers a plural verb-form, whereas population, being singular in form, requires a singular verb-form. In the UK, 'notional concord' or 'logical agreement' (synesis) would normally apply - about 90% of a population means say 34 453 782 people, so 'are doing' and 'have filed' would be chosen here. | |
| May 4, 2013 at 20:38 | comment | added | Brandon | This is helpful but doesn't really answer the question at hand; it only clarifies on how to improve the sentence, which I agree with you on. | |
| May 4, 2013 at 20:30 | history | answered | rajah9 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |