One in five Americans who work shorter hours at their job in order to

Hello, NandishSS. Yes, this is a confusing question, but I will do my best to get to the bottom of each answer choice. How about we have a look?


I have highlighted the beginning of the who clause to indicate that although we are dealing with a singular subject of one in the main clause, the relative pronoun who after Americans triggers a plural subject-verb agreement. The idea is that we are talking about a group of Americans who do something, singling out a member of that group for discussion. Crucially, without the relative pronoun (i.e. who), the sentence would require a singular subject-verb agreement instead. Please see this post on the topic, a collection of dedicated notes originally from Ron Purewal. Thus, one in five Americans who work... save is absolutely fine. The one debatable point I find in this option is the use of the singular job, which makes it sound as though we are referring back to the individual, an especially odd time to do so, since it follows the plural pronoun their. I would not get rid of this answer choice right away, but I would keep looking.


Okay, this is another tricky answer, but one that can be disproved with a closer look at subject-verb agreement. You might recall that an -ing modifier without a comma modifies the preceding noun, so their is correct to agree with Americans. But then we get saves later on, and if we are talking about Americans as a group in the rest of the sentence, the earlier part, then we need the verb to be save for the sake of consistency. By using saves, the sentence shifts the focus back to the individual, which makes it seem as if their refers—incorrectly—to that same individual. Even though gender-neutral pronouns are in vogue right now, at least in the United States, standardized grammar rules tend to be slower to catch up, and as of this writing, their must still refer to a plural subject.


Yet another arcane grammar rule is on display here. After what I wrote above for choice (A), how could I reject this option for the same plural subject-verb agreement? It all has to do with the article the at the head of the sentence, which is used to indicate the one and only, a singular subject. So, despite the one in five... who construct, the the overrides everything. The agreement must be the one in five Americans who works.


Sure, there are more words, but the meaning here is crystal clear, and the subject-verb agreement is perfect.


Another easy elimination, this time on the grounds that the sentence, without a comma after job creates a run-on. We do not even have to consider whether anything else is off. Take it as a gift, given some of the other choices.

There you have it. I hope that helps clarify your areas of concern. Choice (D) is the best of the bunch, but whoever designed the original question must have been combing through the back of some unabridged and quite lengthy grammar guide.

Thank you for tagging me on this one, and best of luck with your studies.

- Andrew
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Dear jubilee777,
I'm happy to help.

Choice (B) has a few problems. First of all, the subject of the sentence, "one", is singular, so the main verb must be singular, but (B) has the plural verb "save". Also, (A) & (B) have a pronoun problem --- the "their", a plural pronoun, refers back to "one", which is singular. Issues with SV agreement and pronoun-antecedent agreement become very tricky with indefinite pronouns & modifiers. See this post:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/gmat-sente ... agreement/

Also, (A) & (B) & (C) all have a logical error --- it's unclear whether the "working" or "who work" is designed to modify all Americans or only the one in five. The grammatical structure could suggest that of all the Americans who work shorter hours, one in five of this subgroup do so to care for an elder. That's what the grammar is implying, but clearly that's not what the sentence is trying to say.

Choice (D) elegantly and correctly says what the sentence is trying to say. Choice (D) is the best answer.

Does all this make sense?
Mike
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I agree, I think I would prefer plural 'jobs' in D. However, we have to take the best of what is given.

Also, I think Andrew's explanation above is prudent:



One thing I will add about A-C that I don't think I've seen mentioned (though I might have missed it in my quick scan through the long discussions on this topic) is that there is some meaning ambiguity with the modifier of the 'one in five americans.'

If I say "One in five Americans who work shorter hours at their job to provide care..." (or the slight variations of this in A-C), am I looking at the group of ALL AMERICANS WHO WORK SHORTER HOURS AT THEIR JOB TO PROVIDE CARE, and taking one out of five of THEM?

OR, am I looking at *all* American workers, and saying '20% of those workers work shorter hours to provide care.'

Basically, is the meaning:

"20% of the (Americans who work shorter hours to provide care) save society millions"

OR

"20% of Americans--the number of people who work shorter hours to provide care--save society millions."

A, B, C are ambiguous on this (I sort of lean towards it meaning the former!)... but truth be told it seems like both are wrong! I don't think we're saying *only* 20% of the short-hour-working-to-provide-care group saves millions, I think we're saying that whole *group* saves millions. I also don't think we really mean to say that a full 20% of ALL AMERICANS is the group of people who work shorter hours.

D clears up both issues. It points out we're talking about 20% of all *employees*, not 20% of all *Americans*; it specifies these people are the group that work shorter hours to provide care; and thus these people save society millions.
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Hello again, Mavisdu1017. I think you misinterpreted my post, which was meant as a compliment to you for broaching a topic that had not come up in the thread. I wanted to encourage you to continue to do so, since your query and any pertinent response to it will add to the community dialogue on a question. You did not offend me in any way, and neither did Reed for writing the response he did. I especially appreciated that you had taken the time to look at the earlier posts in the thread. It is not uncommon to see Expert reply requests come through regarding concerns that have been addressed multiple times by others.

Stay curious.

- Andrew
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A) is wrong because their job implies one in five americans is singular, but the verb at the end save implies it is plural. B) and C) mix up plural/singular as well. The beginning part of E) is awkward/doesn't fit with the sentence, and the it at the end is ambiguous. D) everything is correct, but I agree it doesn't sound great.


A. One in five Americans who work shorter hours at their job in order to provide care for an elderly relative save

B. One in five Americans working shorter hours at their jobs in order to provide care for an elderly relative saves

C. The one in five Americans who work shorter hours at a job in order to provide care for an elderly relative saves

D. Those Americans, approximately one-fifth of all employees, who work shorter hours at a job in order to care for an elderly relative save

E. Providing care for an elderly relative, approximately one-fifth of all American employees work shorter hours at a job and it saves

Ha ha. I did not know my name change would prove problematic. My apologies. I just wanted to emerge from behind the business I was representing and become more of a person, you know? Perhaps I took a cue from the former moderator known as Hazelnut. (There were a few others who switched names or profile pics right around the same time.) In any case, on to the matter at hand.

A pared down version of (B) reveals that the sentence wavers between a singular and plural subject, and that is the real issue with it. Take a look at just the subject, pronoun, and verb:

One in five Americans working shorter hours at their jobs in order to provide care for an elderly relative saves...

If one in five Americans is plural, and it is, then their jobs is fine. But that would not agree with the later saves. We would be saying that one in five Americans saves... by working shorter hours at their jobs. That sounds singular, but now their jobs is off, indicating plurality instead. Even if you want to argue that we are discussing a subset of Americans who work multiple jobs, the pronoun their is untenable with the verb saves. A singular pronoun would be needed instead: his, her. This is a tough question, but by focusing on the basics, you can break it down and expose the flaws in the incorrect answer choices.

I hope that helps shed a little more light on the matter. If not, you know how to find me at least.

- Andrew
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Here's the official explanation provided by the GMAC for this question:

The given sentence, though flawed, seems meant to say that one-fifth of Americans, or perhaps of American workers, work shorter hours at their jobs in order to care for an elderly relative, thus saving society money. Note the failure of agreement between the singular subject one in five Americans and the plural verbs work and save, so either the verb plurals or the phrasing one in five Americans is wrong. Also note that the clause who … relative, in part because of the plural verb work, appears to modify Americans rather than one in five Americans. In other words, the sentence could be read as saying that, of American who work … relative, just one-fifth save society money. This is probably not the intended reading.

Option A: As explained above, this version is flawed.

Option B: The adjectival phrase working … relative, because it immediately follows Americans and because of the plural possessive their, should be read as modifying Americans rather than the grammatically singular one in five Americans. This indicates that only one-fifth of the Americans who take care of an elderly relative save society money—probably not the claim intended.

Option C: The clause who work … relative incorrectly agrees with Americans rather than with the one in five Americans, the singular subject it modifies.

Option D: Correct. This version states clearly that one-fifth of American employees work shorter hours at their jobs so that they can care for elderly relatives and that in doing so, they save society money that would otherwise be spent on eldercare.

Option E: What the word it refers to is unclear. In context, it should refer to the fact about shorter hours of work, but logically it should refer to the fact about provision of care for an elderly relative. The omission of a comma immediately following job makes and it saves incorrect. A better version would be: one-fifth of American employees work … at a job, thereby saving ….

The correct answer is D.

Please note that I'm not the author of this explanation. I'm just posting it here since I believe it can help the community.

B is saying: One in five Americans <working shorter hours at their jobs in order to provide care for an elderly relative> saves money.

Notice that "working shorter hours at their jobs in order to provide care for an elderly relative" is a participial phrase, modifying "five Americans" (one "grammatical clue" that we get is that this participial phrase uses the plural pronoun "their" and so, this participial phrase should be modifying a plural entity, in this case "five Americans").

So, B is suggesting: Out of every five Americans who work shorter hours at their jobs in order to provide care for an elderly relative, only "one" saves money.

This is clearly not the intended meaning.
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You are free to deviate from the original in order to "fix" the meaning of the sentence. The original sentence does not have clear meaning and needs significant changes in order to convey proper meaning. In general, stick with the original intent of the sentence except when that intent is flawed. When flawed, choose an answer that conveys proper meaning.

KW
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HI GMATNinja, GMATGuruNY, MentorTutoring, generis, GMATRockstar,

Can you please help me with this SC. It's a bit confusing.
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Hi AndrewN,

You should have made it public before changing your name from mentortutoring
Unable to find you to clear my doubts

So here, I am still confused on option B.
You correctly said about nuon modifier but still our main subject is"one in five americans" and "saves" is the correct verb.
I believe both their and saves used correctly here.
Please clarify.

Hello again, imSKR. My responses will be in line below.


No, you have it just right from the link. The verb should agree with Americans, not with one. But you cannot refer to a single person using the pronoun their, at least not on the GMAT™, which is all that matters in this discussion. (In all honesty, I would almost be afraid not to use a gender-neutral pronoun in such a case right now in real life, given the current social climate in the U.S.)


Their would be appropriate in the sentence above because the subject is many Americans (i.e. not just one), and the context suggests that these different people will not collectively hold one job, so again, the plural jobs would be fitting.


No, you cannot reject (C) on the basis that it uses the. For all we know, the sentence could be drawing our attention to the one in five Americans, a single person who belongs to a larger group. But the verb needs to agree with such a singular subject, so who work should be who works instead.

These are all subtle issues, but they can come up on the GMAT™. Given the level of difficulty of this question, I would say that most test-takers would get caught up in all the verbiage without being able to focus on the simple concerns (i.e. subject-verb agreement).

I hope that helps. Thank you, as always, for thinking to ask me about the question, and good luck with your studies.

- Andrew
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Hi AndrewN

Thanks for the swift reply.
As you mentioned that you have no issues with the non-bracketed part, then why should the verb "work" which i kept inside the bracket be an issue? why can't its subject be 5 Americans? if that makes a logical sense, then it should also be correct?

Hello, Mavisdu1017. You made the sort of request I like to see in the forum. You harbored a suspicion about something, but no one had touched on the matter, so you sought an Expert opinion. Keep in mind, Experts may not always see the same issues in a given set of answer choices. It does not make one Expert right or wrong when someone else comes along and points something out. There is often more than one way to look at (in this case) a sentence. I happen to enjoy it when some new consideration is added to the dialogue for all to read and ponder.

Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew
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Agree with your interpretation. There is a big meaning issue with B. It suggests that out of every five Americans who work shorter hours at their jobs in order to provide care for an elderly relative, only one American (out of five) saves society millions of dollars.

This meaning is clearly absurd.
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Pardon the delay in my response, gmatimothy. To be clear, I think your interpretation is fine. I see several fine responses in the thread that discuss meaning, including the most recent by EducationAisle. I would also direct your attention to this post by ReedArnoldMPREP; this one, the OE, provided by ChiranjeevSingh; and this one by mikemcgarry. You will note that we do not all discuss the same matters, nor do we discuss the same matters in the same way. I say this often, and I will reiterate: it is okay to walk away with a correct answer without seeing every fine point that Expert X or Expert Y points out. The goal is simply to improve your understanding of the fundamentals that will lead you to reason your way to the correct answers in the future.

Thank you for thinking to follow up.

- Andrew
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Looks like A. Am not too sure of the OA D.
maybe GMATNinja or VeritasKarishma can help with this official question

Can someone explain clearly what's wrong with option B

One in five Americans working shorter hours at their jobs in order to provide care for an elderly relative saves --> verb 'saves' is singular since the subject ' one in five Americans' is singular
And 'their' seems to be a correct pronoun for both singular and plural subjects

Posted from my mobile device

Can I know why in option B, the verb 'saves' doesn't agree with the singular subject 'one in five americans'?