Identifying the subject with a middelman

[ddohnggo]

Quick question on identifying a subject in a sentence.

The following is taken from the Idioms Strategy section of the SC book:

"A large percentage of New York City residents are natives of other countries."

Based on the subjects section of the book, I first thought that percentage would be the main subject of this sentence by removing the middleman of New York City residents. However, I see that the verb is plural, leading me to now think that the subject is residents.

Since the middleman trick does not appear to be a hard-and-fast rule, are there any tips that would allow me to quickly identify when I can use it?
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[RA]

Plural form of the verb is more appropriate because "percentage" refers to a countable/plural entity.

If percentage was referring to a lump sum than it would have been a singular entity.
Example: "Large percentage of student body is....."

[RA]

Reposting my response with a couple of spelling and grammatical corrections. GMAT SC does make you a bit more cognizant of what you write :lol:

Plural form of the verb is more appropriate because "percentage" refers to a countable/plural entity.

If percentage was referring to a lump sum then the subject would have been a singular entity.
Example: "Large percentage of the student body is....."

[Guest]

Here is the rule:

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

[esledge]

Well put, previous posters. Another way to think of it: Portion words often can't stand alone as subjects: "A percentage is native" makes little sense, as a percentage is not the meaningful noun, the residents are.