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About one-third of the BIOLOGY CLASS STUDENTS have / has

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About one-third of the BIOLOGY CLASS STUDENTS have / has [#permalink] New post 07 Aug 2010, 01:54
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About one-third of the BIOLOGY CLASS STUDENTS have / has GPAs above 3.0

I asked the above question against the background that "class" is a non-count noun,
an so, the correct verb should be "has."
However, the presence of "students" seem to drift my opinion to "have."

Any take on this, please?
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Re: Biology class students have/has [#permalink] New post 07 Aug 2010, 02:28
gmatbull wrote:
About one-third of the BIOLOGY CLASS STUDENTS have / has GPAs above 3.0

I asked the above question against the background that "class" is a non-count noun,
an so, the correct verb should be "has."
However, the presence of "students" seem to drift my opinion to "have."

Any take on this, please?


in quantities the verb always takes the form of the object of the prepositional phrase, in this sentence that would be BIOLOGY CLASS STUDENTS
Biology Class is acting as an adjective and the students is the object, students is plural therefore HAVE is the right choice.
hope this helps.
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Re: Biology class students have/has [#permalink] New post 07 Aug 2010, 04:36
In other words, below sentence will be applicable-relying on your explanations:

About one-third of the biology class has GPAs above 3.0; hope am correct?

Thanks for taking your time.
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Re: Biology class students have/has [#permalink] New post 07 Aug 2010, 10:06
I go with "have" as it is mentioned GPAs not GPA
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Re: Biology class students have/has [#permalink] New post 07 Aug 2010, 11:21
gmatbull wrote:
About one-third of the BIOLOGY CLASS STUDENTS have / has GPAs above 3.0

I asked the above question against the background that "class" is a non-count noun,
an so, the correct verb should be "has."
However, the presence of "students" seem to drift my opinion to "have."

Any take on this, please?


Most such expressions, although the words themselves are singular, take grammatically plural forms because they represent quantities that are clearly plural in number.

for instance, percentages, proportions, fractions, and the like fall into this category.

one-third of all the students are chinese --> correct. it'd be ridiculous to write "one-third of all the students is chinese".

on the other hand.

one out of three students is chinese --> also correct. in this case, you're literally saying one student (out of three), so, there you go, singular.

By RON PUREWAL - ManhattanGmat (Gmat 800 scorer)
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Re: Biology class students have/has [#permalink] New post 07 Aug 2010, 11:40
saisubbu wrote:
I go with "have" as it is mentioned GPAs not GPA

well if you are talking about the second question that he asked then I dont think there is any grammatical error in it but probably the sentence itself does not make sense, because it should be one-third of the biology class has a gpa ......
but for ron explanation he said "one out of three students" that's different.
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Re: Biology class students have/has [#permalink] New post 07 Aug 2010, 11:43
it must be have because it's with GPAs not with class or students

at least I thinks so
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Re: Biology class students have/has [#permalink] New post 08 Aug 2010, 11:25
have.. the fraction of plural no. shld be in plural
Re: Biology class students have/has   [#permalink] 08 Aug 2010, 11:25
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