usgae of "was"..correct??..pls explain?

Question

An emigrant ship had arrived at New York on the Saturday night, another on the Sunday morning, our own on Sunday afternoon, a fourth early on Monday; and as there is no emigrant train on Sunday a great part of the passengers from these four ships was concentrated on the train by which I was to travel.

Is the usage of was in the above extract correct??

Mbouti · Accepted Answer

Hi there

" a great part of the passengers from these four ships was concentrated on the train by which I was to travel
because main subject is "a great part of the passengers ..., not four ships" so "was" would be correct.

Sausages · Answer

Actually, 'was' refers back to 'part', not 'ships', and so 'was' is the correct use.

Huevos · Answer

The subject of "was" is "a great part of the passengers". Yes, it is singular in theory but few natives would feel it to be, so they would normal choose the plural form of the verb.

Sausages · Answer

The plural verb is apparently a feature of British English, where American English users opt for using chiefly the singular.

But, being native to neither language, I guess my hands are free

I have a theory, that if I were to speak this sentence, I would use 'were', whereas if I were to write it, I'd use the singular 'was'. Does that make sense?

BarbaraPA · Answer

This American would opt for "were." If there were 400 people, "a great part of those people" would still refer to multiple people. The immigants (I'd use "im" since they have come to New York) are not a unit, functioning together, the way "a jury" or "a team" would - they are a great mass of people, so the plural verb makes far more sense.

usgae of "was"..correct??..pls explain?

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