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Ashleylm Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

One of five WAS or WERE?

Hi,

We're arguing over whether we should say
"One in five of the new students was admitted early"
or
"One in five of the new students were admitted early" ...

We're all agreed the first is fine if there were only five students ... but we disagree about what to do if there are hundreds of new students, where one in five might mean 200 people!

Any idea what the correct response is? We're both native English speakers, but this one has us flummoxed.

Thanks so much,

Ash
  

Top answer

This argument has been going on for years in the community of grammarians. As far as I know, no definitive conclusion has been reached. In actual practice the usage is about half and half.

— CalifJim

  • This argument has been going on for years in the community of grammarians.
  • As far as I know, no definitive conclusion has been reached.
  • In actual practice the usage is about half and half.
  • No matter which you choose, about half of the people who read it will say you're wrong!
  • , the noun closest to the verb.
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2 Answers
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This argument has been going on for years in the community of grammarians. As far as I know, no definitive conclusion has been reached.

In actual practice the usage is about half and half. No matter which you choose, about half of the people who read it will say you're wrong!

Personally, I think that an expression like "one in five [somethings]" represents a fractional amount, s
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Thanks so much, I really appreciate it.
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