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Englishnewbie Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

a portion of?

Hello,

A portion of workers ARE/IS?
The portion of workers ARE/IS?

Which is correct?

Thanks,
  

Top answer

'Portion' does not work well with 'workers' in the first place: it sounds rather grisly. '

— Mister Micawber

  • 'Portion' does not work well with 'workers' in the first place: it sounds rather grisly.
  • '
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6 Answers
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'Portion' does not work well with 'workers' in the first place: it sounds rather grisly. 'Some (of the) workers are...'
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Hi,

How about

A portion of profits ARE/IS donated to charity.

I ask this because

A number of cars are.
The number of cars is.

So is "portion" like "number" where the verb depends on the "profits" inthis case?

Thanks.
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A number of / the number of is an idiomatic pair. The rule does not apply to other cases. The verb does not depend on profits; the subject is 'portion': A/The portion is....
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Is the "number" the ONLY exception?
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The only one I can think of, yes. The point is that 'the number of' is singular (noun 'number') but 'a number of' is an idiomatic quantifier meaning 'several/some/many'. If you can find other phrasal quantifiers with an embedded noun, please let me know.
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Thank you so much for the clarifiction!
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