Affix  +  14015 Mon, 24 Nov 03 01:48 PM Two thirds of the forest _____pine pine trees. A is B are Which one is right???? Affix Joined on Mon, Nov 24 2003 New Member 25

	trellis  +  14023 Mon, 24 Nov 03 03:09 PM Hello Affix, The word "forest" is singular. One forest. So, "is" is the correct word here. Two thirds of the forest is pine trees. I know it might sound a bit wrong because "pine trees" is plural. But I think "is" is correct. Maybe somebody will correct me though. :o) trellis Joined on Tue, Oct 21 2003 Full Member 397 Plurals, Affix

	John C.  +  14085 Tue, 25 Nov 03 10:08 AM "Is" is definitely correct - but really, the subject is "two thirds". "Two thirds" is considered to be a single undivided quantity, not two units out of three. Some measurements are funny like that. Think of a pie chart that has two segments - One is 66.6% and that represents the amount of the forest planted in pine trees. Cheers John. John C. Joined on Thu, Jun 5 2003 The Peoples Democratic Republic of Spam Full Member 178

	trellis  +  14092 Tue, 25 Nov 03 10:16 AM Good one John. Thanks. I need to learn all this. btw: I notice that sometimes after I post a reply to an unanswered question, a reply by you has appeared while I was off in limbo slowly typing my post. I do not mean to be duplicating your replies. You are just faster at it than I am. No offence intended. trellis

	John C.  +  14213 Wed, 26 Nov 03 09:26 AM I've been mulling this over for a while. I think that my answer was not quite complete. I still think that "Two-thirds" is the simple subject, but this kind of construction seems to be influenced by the whole subject. For instance. "Two-thirds of my family are lunatics." "Two-thirds of that banana is rotten." We can see that it matters whether noun in the prepositional phrase is singular or plural. So Trellis's instinct that "forest" is singular was relevant after all. But when we don't have that influence, the verb is definitely singular. "Two-thirds is worrying, but it doesn't mean you're a lunatic." Cheers John. John C. Verbs, Plurals, Constructions, Nouns