Learn English – difference between “in” and “out of” when talking of amounts

differenceprepositions

Tonight I was reading a text about the English language, which included the following sentence :

One in ten people speak (English) as their mother tongue

I was surprised by this usage, and so I checked in the OALD. I found that "in" is defined (18th meaning) as "used to show a rate or relative amount" and this example is given "a gradient of one in five".

"out of" is defined (11th meaning) as "from a particular number or set" and the following example is given "you scored six out of ten".

Am I the only one who cannot tell the difference between the two expressions? Would it be wrong to say "One out of ten people speak (English) as their mother tongue" ?

Best Answer

"One in ten" is a ratio (10%) but does not define the size of the sample or group.

The definition you have for "out of" is correct.

While your phrase "One out of ten people speaks (English) as their mother tongue" is technically OK (though it should be speaks since "one" is singular), it makes no sense because we know more than 10 people speak English. You would need to add a qualifier, such as:

"One out of ten people in my office speaks (English) as their mother tongue".

It implies there are only 10 people in your office.

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