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French Collective Nouns | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7102 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 9 of 9 02 June 2010 at 10:19pm | IP Logged |
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I checked my main reference French Grammar and Usage.
This is from the section 9.1.5 Verb agreement with numeral nouns and quantifiers When most quantifiers (like la plupart de 'most', (un grand) nombre de 'a large number of', quantité de 'a lot of', beaucoup de 'many') are subjects, the verb agrees with their complement, whether it is present or implied: La plupart (des habitants) partagent mes sentiments Most (of the inhabitants) share my feelings La plupart (d'entre eux) sont prêts à nous aider Most (of them) are ready to help us Un grand nombre (de locataires) sont déjà allés se plaindre A large number (of the tenants) have already been to complain Beaucoup (de manifestants) se présenteront à la mairie cet après-midi A lot (of demonstrators) will go to the Town Hall this afternoon With la majorité de 'the majority of', une minorité de 'a minority of', le reste de 'the rest of', the verb can agree either with the quantifier or its complement: La majorité (de nos étudiants) ont/a moins de quarante ans The majority, (of our students) are under forty In this instance, Spiderkat's post has provided more clarity in explaining why you might use one or the other. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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