Verb subject agreement in a two-clause sentence

Question

I would be grateful for advice on the following sentence:

'It is not known how many escape attempts were made, but only a small percentage were successful.'

A friend tells me that the word after 'percentage' should be 'was', but I think that 'were' is correct because 'escape attempts' is plural. I live in the UK so the rules here may be slightly different than the US, but to substitute 'was' for 'were' in this sentence seems really odd to me

Tamguatlay · Accepted Answer

I'd use "were", too because percentage is related to escape attempts.

GPY · Answer

I am from the UK, and I would use "were" because the subject "a small percentage" is logically plural. In US usage, verbs tend to agree more strictly with the grammatical number of their subjects. It may be that in the US "a small percentage" is seen as grammaticallly singular, so requiring a singular verb. Perhaps an American forum member will be able to comment.

Philip · Answer

GPY It may be that in the US "a small percentage" is seen as grammaticallly singular, so requiring a singular verb

This American prefers to see it as grammatically singular, but I fear I am in the minority on this one.

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousIt is not known how many escape attempts were made, but only a small percentage (of the attempts) were successful.

I would leave it as above. My reasoning is shown in parentheses.

CJ

Verb subject agreement in a two-clause sentence

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