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I understand the basic singular/plural agreement when using kind/kinds:

This kind of person
Those kinds of people

But what do you do if the subject is not the plural "those" but rather the singular "one of those"? In a sentence like this, would you use the singular "kind" because of the "one of" or the plural "kinds" because the "one of" is referring to a separate plural clause:

You're one of those spare-the-rod kind(s) of people, right?

I could always suggest a rephrase as

You're a spare-the-rod kind of person, right?

but I'd like to know how to properly work the original sentence too.

Thanks!

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    This is a pretty informal phrase to begin with, I suspect people aren't consistent about it.
    – Barmar
    Commented May 30, 2019 at 0:21
  • I would use 'kinds of people' there myself, but that's not necessarily standard or what other people would do.
    – marcellothearcane
    Commented Jul 1, 2019 at 21:04
  • I wouldn't use this wording at all, because it means the opposite of the literal meaning of the words.
    – Spencer
    Commented Oct 21, 2020 at 12:43
  • "You're a spare-the-rod person" feels more natural. There's no need for "kind of", because "spare-the-rod person" implies a kind of person.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Oct 16, 2021 at 11:10
  • 'Spare the rod kinds'? Spare the rod type A, s-t-r type B, s-t-r type C ... this makes little sense in reality. But 'those s-t-r kind' sounds awful too. 'You're one of those spare-the-rod people ...?' works.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Oct 16, 2021 at 11:16

1 Answer 1

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You're one of those spare-the-rod kind(s) of people, right?

In this sentence the demonstrative adjective "those" defines the noun "kind". So it affects this noun in terms of plurality. So it would be grammatically right to say:

those kinds

But to me it sounds better if I hear:

this kind of / that kind of (singular) instead of those kinds of (plural)

So to me the whole sentence would be:

You're one of that spare-the-rod kind of people, right?

where demonstrative adjective "that" and compound hyphenated adjective "spare-the-rod" both define one noun - kind. So 2 words describe 1.

that (1) spare-the-rod (2) kind

So, basically, weather to use plural or singular for "this/that/these/those" depends on the choice of "kind" or "kinds" for this is a semantically and therefore grammatically bound pair.

I would use "kind". Therefore, I would say "that/this":

You're one of that spare-the-rod kind of people, right?

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  • "You" are not a kind, "you" are a person. So doesn't "those" modify "people" and not "kind"?
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Feb 24, 2020 at 10:40
  • While there's some logic to what's said in this answer, people just don't say things like "You're one of that spare-the-rod kind of people": in this kind of expression (intended to be somewhat insulting) it largely has to be "you're one of those ...".
    – psmears
    Commented Jun 18, 2021 at 10:29
  • Look at the rest of the sentence without the descriptive phrase "spare the rod". Does "You're one of those kinds of people…" really work? No; the discussion is about that one kind, not those several. Alternatively, "… those" would work when the reference was to people, not to kinds, eg "You're one of those spare-the-rod people". The real problem was the use of "those" in the example, instead of "that…"
    – Robbie Goodwin
    Commented Oct 16, 2021 at 22:48

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