tdol said:
In the forum, Ronbee posted an entry about whether 'two thirds of the cake' should be followed by a singular or a plural verb. His logic seems unarguable: Part of the cake has been eaten. Some of the cake has...
To test this, I went to Google and chose the Language Tools option:
I then did a search for 'two thirds' followed by a singular and a plural verb in the UK and got the following results:
"Two thirds is"- UK pages only 530
"Two thirds are"- UK pages only 1,1720
"One fifth is"- 63
"One fifth are"- 199
Two thirds are.... (OK)
==> The subject is plural
Two thirds (of the cake) is... (OK)
==> The subject is singular 'cake'. It has been omitted from the context.
One fifth is... (OK)
==> The subject is singular.
One fifth (of the cakes) are... (OK)
==> The subject is plural 'cakes'. It has been omitted from the context.
The problem with searches is that the context is not provided. If the speakers know they are talking about 'cakes' or 'cake', they tend to leave the word out of the context. The verb remaining, 'are/is' holds the key as to whether the subject is singular or plural.
