Collective nouns - singular or plural

[Guest]

Hi,

Is there a general rule which can specify whether a collective oun takes a singular or a plural verb? e.g. Is the under noted sentence correct?

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

I know that when a group acts as a whole, singular verb is used and when individual members are referred to, plural verb is used. But are there more rules?

Also does an article affect the use of singular/plural verb e.g.
The number of guests is smaller this year.
A number of guests are from Germany.


Please clarify. Thanks a lot for your help!

[guest]

Hi GMAT Staff,

Can you please provide an explanation to my question?. I need your help.

Thanks

[RonPurewal]

Collective nouns can be subtle, because you have to tap into the MEANING of the sentence. Specifically,
* if the sentence stresses the uniformity or 'togetherness' of the group, then use the singular;
* if the sentence stresses individual actions (perhaps grouped together, but still regarded as clearly individual), then go with the plural.
* WHEN IN DOUBT, GO SINGULAR (this won't work 100% of the time, of course, but we find that most of these things - especially on the GMAT - are slanted toward the singular.)

Examples:
The faculty always votes for tuition hikes at the annual meetings. (singular, because the faculty is portrayed as voting AS A BLOC or UNIT)
The faculty commute very long distances from their homes to the campus. (plural, because, although all the faculty members commute, there is still an obvious individualism to their commuting)

You are right on re: 'the number of' vs. 'a number of'. The best way to regard that difference isn't so much 'the article is in control' as 'a number of is an idiomatic expression that's the equivalent of many'. That takes care of that particular difference.

[Guest]

Thanks a lot Ron!

[JonathanSchneider]

: )

[chotu1234]

In manhattan SC guide,"A majority of railway commuters reads and listens music while traveling" has been considered correct while it seems that this is a plural subject.
Could you please explain?

[theboyfromforest]

Shouldn't it be "A majority of railway commuters read and listen to music while traveling." ?

"Listen to music" or "Listen music"?

[RonPurewal]

In manhattan SC guide,"A majority of railway commuters reads and listens music while traveling" has been considered correct while it seems that this is a plural subject.
Could you please explain?

has it really?

oh no. that's not good.

"a majority of railway commuters" is clearly plural, unless that majority is literally doing something as a unit (such as, say, voting).
since reading and listening to music are by definition individual pursuits, this MUST be taken as plural.

[RonPurewal]

Shouldn't it be "A majority of railway commuters read and listen to music while traveling." ?

"Listen to music" or "Listen music"?

yes, it should be "listen to music".

(...unless you're from savannah, georgia, u.s.a., in which case it's "listen AT music")

[saurabhkhatri]

Hi,

Can you please explain the difference between 'a majority' and 'the majority'.

Thanks a lot for your help!

[tim]

this question is probably irrelevant, as i can't think of any GMAT problems where you have to make a distinction between these, but typically you would say "the majority" by itself and "a majority of x" if you're carving out a majority from some specified larger group..

[sapana.pandey]

Hi,
I am sorry for jumping into the discussion but I would like to know the clear concepts between the quantitative nouns and the collective nouns.

Collective nouns generally take singular but when we talk about the members of the group then plural is preferred.
For example: The army of ants is marching towards you.
A number of apples are rotten.

I am confused with the quantitative nouns like majority, half, two-third, minority, most, etc. Do they take verbs according the nouns in the prepositional phrase?
For Example: Majority of work is done.
Majority of students are present today.

Am I going in right direction? Experts can you please guide ?

Thank You!

[tim]

actually, "majority of x does y" is grammatically incorrect on its own. most of the words you bring up fall in different categories, and many of them don't have definitive answers without introducing a larger context. for instance "a majority are x" vs. "the majority is x"..