singular or plural

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Hela

#235285 Mon, 12 Jun 06 07:37 PM

Dear teachers,

Would you please tell me WHY we use a plural verb after "the majority"?

The majority ARE going to vote against him.
The great majority of incomes CONSIST of wages and salaries.

Best wishes,
Hela

Hela

Joined on Mon, Nov 15 2004

Tunisia

Regular Member (831)

Verbs, Plurals

Cool Breeze

#235299 Mon, 12 Jun 06 08:43 PM

Hi Hela

All kinds of opinions have been offered about words like majority requiring a singular or a plural verb. If you prefer singular, in my opinion you can use it in your sentences:

The majority is/are going to vote against him.
The great majority of incomes consist(s) of wages and salaries.

I know many people disagree with me, though.

Cheers
CB

Cool Breeze

Joined on Fri, Apr 7 2006

Helsinki, Finland

Senior Member (2,962)

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.- Mark Twain

Verbs, Plurals

CalifJim

#235411 Tue, 13 Jun 06 04:28 AM

the majority is, in essence, a form of most which is exclusively a countable (unlike most, which can be countable or noncountable).

Here are fifteen spoons. The majority of the spoons are made of silver. The majority are made of silver.

Can the majority be just one? How can one spoon be the majority in a group of fifteen?

What else can it be, if not plural?

CJ

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (17,566)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Plurals

Hela

#235459 Tue, 13 Jun 06 08:11 AM

Thank you CJ Smile [:)]

Hela

Cool Breeze

#235483 Tue, 13 Jun 06 09:25 AM

CalifJim wrote:
the majority is, in essence, a form of most which is exclusively a countable (unlike most, which can be countable or noncountable).

Here are fifteen spoons. The majority of the spoons are made of silver. The majority are made of silver.

Can the majority be just one? How can one spoon be the majority in a group of fifteen?

What else can it be, if not plural?

CJ

Hi CJ

I agree with your reasoning completely. I wouldn't say the majority is a form of most, though. They just mean the same thing. But that's beside the point. The majority can't be just one, that's very true, and just like you I use the plural verbs you offer in your examples. However, there are people who don't look at it that way. Since the word the majority is in the singular (singular: majority, plural: majorities), some people use a singular verb whether we like it or not. It doesn't give me a headache even though I prefer a plural verb.

There has been vacillation between singular and plural verb forms in English for at least as long as there are written records of the language, that's about 1300 years. Some say: The audience were satisfied, others say: The audience was satisfied, and I don't think there was just one person in the audience when they say so.

As matter of fact, English has always been very flexible in matters of singular and plural. There are at least two reasons for this: there has never been a Language Academy anywhere in the Anglo-Saxon world to regulate the language and English is derived from so many origins that some discrepancies have inevitably arisen. In my opinion they enrich the language but if you want to reject some of the phenomena I am fascinated by, I don't object to your doing that. We can still be friends, I hope?

Cheers
CB