About " The majority"

[FuM520]

In the Senate, the majority has coalesced into a unified voting block


In this sentence, since the majority finally coalesced into "one", that means the majority should be plural, right?

Thus, is the sentence wrong? I am somehow confused about this.

Hope a reply

Thanks in advance！

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

If you speak a dialect of English close to British English, then you're probably used to collective nouns being plural. For example "The team are winning."; "The army leave tomorrow."; "The jury have made a decision." etc. However, in GMAT, following American English norms, collective nouns are singular, hence it would say "The team is winning."; "The army leaves tomorrow."; "The jury has made a decision." etc.

The word 'majority' is a collective noun, so the sentence you quote is correct. As for the meaning, no worries about one thing coalescing, that can happen quite easily. Think of other examples, such as "The whole lake froze, coalescing into a single block of ice."; "The army has coalesced into a single fighting unit."

[JingziL752]

Women are expected to be the majority of students entering law school this fall, a trend ultimately placing more women in leadership positions in politics and business.
A.Women are expected to be the majority of students entering law school this fall, a trend ultimately placing
B.The majority of students entering law school this fall are expected to be women, a trend that will ultimately place
C.The majority of students entering law school this fall are expected to be women, which will ultimately place
D.It is expected that the majority of students entering law school this fall will be women, a trend ultimately placing
E.It is expected for women to be the majority of students entering law school this fall, which will ultimately place
(OA:B)
I just met this question which the " majority" in here is plural. So, I guess it can be used both single and plural.

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Well spotted! Actually, I was wrong to call 'majority' a collective noun. I should have called it a quantity word, and, yes, these can be singular or plural depending on the context. Other examples are 'half' and 'number'. Check out page 164 in chapter 10 of the SC strategy guide.