Subject-Verb Agreement – Fractions in Subject-Verb Agreement

subject-verb-agreement

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Reference: The Copyeditors Handbook, SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT, rule-9, page 343

According to the rule, following would be correct;

One-third of the six members were women.

Two-fifths of my wages go to taxes.

Three-fourths of the town was destroyed by the typhoon.

Does the rule always hold, or are there any exceptions to the rule?

Best Answer

One third of the members were women.

Two fifths of my wages go in taxes.

Three quarters of the town was destroyed by the typhoon.

Fractions like these are best analysed as noun phrases taking a of complement. They belong with the number-transparent nouns, where the number of the whole noun phrase is determined by the number of the noun that is complement to the preposition "of", as your examples demonstrate.

The only exception I'm aware of is where the noun that is complement to of is a collective, in which case singular agreement can optionally be overridden:

One tenth of the electorate take / takes drugs.

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