One such incident/incidents

Question

Is it "one such incident" or "one such incidents"?I did a search on Google, and the first got about 8 million hits, and the second got about 7 million hits. To my mind, it should be "incidents": "One such incidents happened on Monday", for instance.Can someone help me with this?

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

One incident.

One such incident happened.

There is only one. It is singular.

Blue Jay · Answer

It should be one such incident.
It is best not to rely on the number of Google hits to determine the correct way to phrase something. In some cases there are significantly more hits for a version that is clearly wrong.

Malcolm101 · Answer

Blue JayIt should be one such incident. It is best not to rely on the number of Google hits to determine the correct way to phrase something. In some cases there are significantly more hits for a version that is clearly wrong.

Thank you very much, BarbaraPA and Blue Jay.

Pardon my ignorance. My reason for thinking that it should be "incidents" is, "One" is the subject of the sentence, and therefore, the verb that follows it should be in the singular. (That's quite clear to me). Okay---but what about the noun "incident"? I was thinking, when we say "one such", are we not particularising an incident among the many, in this case, "incidents"?

Forgive me if I sound darn ignorant. I should like to hear your views.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Malcolm101 "One" is the subject of the sentence, and therefore, the verb that follows it should be in the singular.

The phrase "one such incident(s)" is not a sentence. There is no verb.
Incident is always a noun. If you add an -s, it is plural. "One incident" is always singular. "Such" is just another modifier, meaning "like the aforementioned."
Thus the noun phrase "one such incident" is singular.

The reasons you get google hits for "incidents" are:
1) the phrase is something like: "( twenty) one such incidents" which is a plural noun phrase
2) The word "one" is the end of a sentence or followed by a comma, and thus not part of the phrase: eg. "one. Such incidents are seldom...."
3) It is a mistake. This one is typical: I had encounter one such incidents 2 yrs ago,..
The writer does not have a good command of English grammar. This is just bad English.

Malcolm101 · Answer

AlpheccaStars Malcolm101 "One" is the subject of the sentence, and therefore, the verb that follows it should be in the singular.The phrase "one such incident(s)" is not a sentence. There is no verb.Incident is always a noun. If you add an -s, it is plural. "One incident" is always singular. "Such" is just another modifier, meaning "like the aforementioned."Thus the noun phrase "one such incident" is singular. The reasons you get google hits for "incidents" are:1) the phrase is something like: "( twenty) one such incidents" which is a plural noun phrase2) The word "one" is the end of a sentence or followed by a comma, and thus not part of the phrase: eg. "one. Such incidents are seldom...."3) It is a mistake. This one is typical: I had encounter one such incidents 2 yrs ago,..The writer does not have a good command of English grammar. This is just bad English.

AlpheccaStars, thank you very much, for your elaborate explanation. It is so nice of you.

Once again, you would have to forgive me for my asking you yet another question about what you have said. You said that "one such incident" is not a sentence. As it is, I admit, it isn't. What about my original sentence?

"One such incident happened on Monday."

RandomGuy · Answer

Malcolm101"One" is the subject of the sentence

No. One is determiner to the head noun incident: one … incident. The subject of your sentence is the noun phrase one such incident (= a similar incident). You seem to be confusing this with one of the incidents, meaning “one incident from the set of the incidents”.

BarbaraPA · Answer

Malcolm101"One such incident happened on Monday."

That is a full sentence.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Malcolm101"One such incident happened on Monday."

It is a very good sentence, grammatically correct, logical and clear.
"One such incident happened on Monday."
Incident (with its modifiers one and such) is the subject, happened is the verb, and "on Monday" an adverbial prepositional phrase.

Remember that the simple past tense does not change with the subject's person or number at all, eg:

I happened
You happened
He happened
We happened
They happened

It is only the simple present tense where the third person singular adds the -s/-es ending.

One such incident/incidents

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