A majority of railway commuters

[apoorva.srivastva]

A majority of railway commuters reads or listening to music while traveling.

a.) reads or listening
b.) read or listening
c.) read or listens
d.) read or listen
e.) reads or listens

which should be correct d or e

" A majority" of "plural noun" should be followed by singular or plural verb

kindly help.
Apoorva

[RA]

Answer should be (D)

"Majority of railway commuters" is plural

Rule:
When the subject is a portion word (like majority, percent, fraction, some, all, none...) then the noun (object of preposition) decides whether to use a singular or plural verb.

[apoorva.srivastva]

hi there,

but the answer is e.
this is a sentence from Manhattan Sentence Correction book... "A majority of railway commuters reads or listens to music while traveling.", is the right contruction

pretty much confused...is it becoz of the use if Article "A"

rgds,
Apoorva

[Guest]

Interesting.

Here is an article you might want to read:
http://www.economist.com/research/style ... age=805687

The article gives the following rule for "majority"
If "majority" is used in a abstract sense the verb takes a singular form. If "majority" is used to denote the elements making up the majority then the verb should be plural.

This rule still makes me lean towards answer choice "D". It would be interesting to hear what the experts have to say.

[apoorva.srivastva]

heyy hii,

thnxx for the link.

i just checked the sentence and the answer once again.
A majority of railway commuters sentence is from the 2003 MSC it says that A majority of railway commuters reads or listens is the correct construction.

I have the soft copy of MSC 2003 edition which claims it to be the right answer.

But when i checked their 2007 edition, this paricular sentence has been removed from the book.
I now feel as to watever u said is right.

Lets see, what the Tutors of Manhattan have to comment on this.

Regards,
Apoorva

[esledge]

I believe this question is answered in the following thread. Good one!

http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/the ... t4227.html