Most of the audience - singular or plural?

[thanhan.k43ftu]

I am working with sentence correction, and confuse with singular-plural matter.
In MGMAT guide for SC, it is written that collective nouns like audience are followed by singular verbs, and "Most of N" phrases are followed by plural verb.
So, which kind of verb will follow "Most of the audience"?

[messi10]

Hi,

That is an interesting question. There are two rules in question here.

1) Collective nouns are almost always singular.

2) "Most" falls into the category of the 5 indefinite pronouns that can be either singular or plural depending on the context. These 5 pronouns, referred to by the acronym SANAM, are:

S- Some
A - Any
N - None
A - All
M - More/Most

To determine whether its singular or plural, we have to check the noun object of the Of-prepositional phrase, which in this case is audience.

So, according to that rule, a singular verb must follow audience.

e.g.- Most of the audience has left.

It does sound a bit odd though. I am so used to saying that the audience have left. But that's also cause I spent the last 9 years in England. :)

Regards

Sunil

[jnelson0612]

Wow, great explanation Sunil!

[thanhan.k43ftu]

So, according to the agreement between verb-pronoun we will say:
Most of the audience claps her/his hands?

[jnelson0612]

So, according to the agreement between verb-pronoun we will say:
Most of the audience claps her/his hands?

Correct.