Plural or singular

[ratheen22]

Hi All,

1) A majority of the students are hard workers.
2) A majority of the students work hard.
3) A majority of voters want to unseat the incumbent.

Is the usage of singular/plural in all the 3 sentences correct?
Pls provide the answer with reasons.

Thanks,
Ratheen

[ratheen22]

Please also specify whether "A majority" is different (in that Plural/singular form of verb is used) from "The majority".

[Guest]

Hi Ratheen,

A majority/The majority of students represents a part of the of student community, hence its plural and all the examples that you mentioned are correct.

The student majority can be treated as a collective noun, a group, hence its singular.

[StaceyKoprince]

I found a nice little explication of this from the American Heritage Dictionary, linked below. Scroll down until you see the gray box titled "Usage Note" (didn't cut and paste here due to copyright issues).

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/majority