plural or singular verb???

[mail.rakshika]

One percent of US population (is/are)
90% of US population (is/are)
1% of the total people (is/are)
90% of the total people (is/are)
1% of the students (is/are)
90% of the students (is/are)

Please guide on the verbs on the above. This has been a part of a few questions I have done, since I am not a native, i need help to get basic clarity on the above


Thanks :)

[preethinaidu11]

Post subject: plural or singular verb???
One percent of US population (is/are)-Population is Singular,hence we use 'is'(Collective noun)
90% of US population (is/are) -same as above
1% of the total people (is/are)-People is pural,hence we use "are"
90% of the total people (is/are)-Same as above
1% of the students (is/are)-Student are playing.Students-Plural,hence we use "are"
90% of the students (is/are)-Same as above

[mail.rakshika]

thanks :)

[tim]

wrong! in fact, it's impossible to answer your questions without further context, for the rest of the sentence will help us understand whether the proper subject is "percent" or "population/people/students"..

[Maria MartaA308]

Hi Tim, could you please help me understand this concept. Fo example in the next sentence should i use the verb singular or plural?
Thank you.

"The 93% of the reviewed scenarios were/was approved?"

[RonPurewal]

n% of plural thing = plural thing
n% of singular thing = singular thing

__

there's no reason to memorize this, by the way; this is basically just common sense.

• think of a large number of individual objects/people.
if you take n% of those objects/people, then you still have (plural) objects/people.

• think of a SINGLE MASS.
if you take n% of that single mass, then you still have a single (smaller) mass.