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Ravinath Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

was or were ?

a smaller percentage was graduates

or

a smaller percentage were graduates

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50% was females

or

50% were females

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Top answer

With words that indicate portions— percent, fraction, part, majority, some, all, any, none, remainder , and so forth —look at the noun in your ' of ' phrase (object of the preposition) to determine whether to use a singular or plural verb. If the object of the preposition is singular, use a singular verb. If the object of the preposition is plural, use a plural verb.

— Anonymous

  • With words that indicate portions— percent, fraction, part, majority, some, all, any, none, remainder , and so forth —look at the noun in your ' of ' phrase (object of the preposition) to determine whether to use a singular or plural verb.
  • If the object of the preposition is singular, use a singular verb.
  • If the object of the preposition is plural, use a plural verb.
  • the meaning of your sentence is: a smaller percentage (of the students/of those at the meeting) were graduates.
  • The nouns in the 'of' phrases are plural, so plural verb.
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2 Answers
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With words that indicate portions—percent, fraction, part, majority, some, all, any, none, remainder, and so forth —look at the noun in your 'of ' phrase (object of the preposition) to determine whether to use a singular or plural verb.
If the object of the preposition is singular, use a singular verb.
If the object of the preposition is plural, use a plural verb.

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