A number of players on the team

[ParthJ26]

MGMAT books - Sentence Correction Guide 6th Edition Pg 51 Problem Set Question number 2

Hi Team.

The following question has already been discussed on the forum, but I have a different query about it.

A number of players on the team have improved since last season.

According to the guide and according to Ron, this sentence is correct. Ron mentioned in the forum that he wouldn't bother breaking up the complete subject - a number of players.

But my question is - isn't "of players" a prepositional phrase and shouldn't it be ignored when looking fro the subject?

Wouldn't "a number" be the subject?

Since number is singular - it should take the singular verb - "has improved" and not "have improved".

For example,

A class of 60 is going to the picnic.

class -singular collective noun

is - singular verb

Thank you for your help.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Best,
Parth

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

This is the tricky area of quantity words, such as number, majority, some, etc. Sure, some words - such as group, class, team, army - are followed by singular verbs. (The sentence 'A class of 60 is going to the picnic.' is totally fine.) These are collective nouns. However, quantity words are different and can be either singular or plural based on context. Check out page 164 in chapter 10 of the SC strategy guide.