Difference between "consider to" and "consider to be"

Question

I've read following sentences in a book.

Less than five per cent of this age group is consider to be obese or overweight.

In fact, a fifth are consider to actually weight less than is considered healthy.

My first question is why didn't use "be" in the second sentence after "consider to" ?

Second question is how "a fifth" become a plural ?

Please someone help me to understand this.

Persian Learner · Accepted Answer

dileepaLess than five per cent of this age group is considered to be obese or overweight.

dileepaIn fact, a fifth are considered to actually weight less than is considered healthy.

dileepaMy first question is why it didn't use "be" in the second sentence after "considered to"?

Because after 'to be' you can't use the base form of a verb (weight in your sentence).

dileepaThe second question is "how does 'a fifth' become a plural?"

It's plural because it is referring to a plural noun (people), and the emphasis is on the number of people.

But if it referred to— for example, 'water', then we would have "a fifth is".

In your first example, the object of the preposition 'of' is singular (group), hence using a singular verb (is).

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