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igloo
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Subject Verb agreement rules : Myth of "One of.." 09 Oct 2012, 04:01
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Subject Verb agreement rules : Myth of "One of.."


    1. One of the X's that/who <plural>
    2. One of the X's <singular>
    3. Only one of the X's <singular>
    4. Only one of the X's that/who <plural>
    5. The only one of the X's that/who <singular>


Explanations :


I. If you have just ONE OF THE + PLURAL NOUN + WHO/THAT + ______, and it's NOT "the only one", THEN "____" MUST be a PLURAL VERB.
zero exceptions.


Example:
that's one of the birds that fly over my house at night.

here's the rationale, if you care about reasons: the idea is that there is a whole group of NOUNs (whatever they are) that do ______, and we're singling out one of them.

notice that the RELATIVE PRONOUN (WHO/THAT) is absolutely crucial here.


II. If that isn't there - i.e., if "one of the NOUNs" is actually the SUBJECT of the ____ verb - then you take a singular verb instead


Example:
one of the birds flies over the house; the other one flies past it.


III. Finally, to complicate things further, THE ONLY ONE OF THE + PLURAL NOUN + WHO/THAT + ______ requires a SINGULAR verb for the "_____".


In this case, only one of the NOUNs actually does whatever "_____" refers to, so we stick with the singular verb.
Example:
marina is the only one of the girls who has ever been to india.

The following examples are both correct:
(1) he is one of the people who bake special cakes.
(2) he is the only one of the people who bakes special cakes.

This actually isn't as hard as pure memorization might make it seem: all you have to do is think about the LITERAL MEANING of what you're writing.
In my #1, there are lots of people who bake special cakes, so "bake" should be plural.
In my #2, the man in question is the ONLY person who bakes special cakes, so the verb should be singular.

Here's another way to think about it: you can DECONSTRUCT the sentence, and tell exactly which noun / construction the verb "belongs" to. (i have no idea whether this is a formal grammar concept or not, but it works.)

in my #1:
PEOPLE bake cakes. (--> plural "bake")
he is one of them.
(he is not "one who bakes cakes")

in my #2:
there are a bunch of PEOPLE.
he is THE ONE who BAKES cakes. (--> singular "bakes")
(there are not "people who bake cakes")

Hope this helps !

Courtesy : Ron Purewal's explanation on some other forums. I have only recollected these concepts while searching for "one of" SV agreement rules and sharing it here for the benefit of all GC members.
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harkabir
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Subject Verb agreement rules : Myth of "One of.." 17 Oct 2012, 04:17
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igloo

Subject Verb agreement rules : Myth of "One of.."


    1. One of the X's that/who <plural>
    2. One of the X's <singular>
    3. Only one of the X's <singular>
    4. Only one of the X's that/who <plural>
    5. The only one of the X's that/who <singular>


Explanations :


I. If you have just ONE OF THE + PLURAL NOUN + WHO/THAT + ______, and it's NOT "the only one", THEN "____" MUST be a PLURAL VERB.
zero exceptions.


Example:
that's one of the birds that fly over my house at night.

here's the rationale, if you care about reasons: the idea is that there is a whole group of NOUNs (whatever they are) that do ______, and we're singling out one of them.

notice that the RELATIVE PRONOUN (WHO/THAT) is absolutely crucial here.


II. If that isn't there - i.e., if "one of the NOUNs" is actually the SUBJECT of the ____ verb - then you take a singular verb instead


Example:
one of the birds flies over the house; the other one flies past it.


III. Finally, to complicate things further, THE ONLY ONE OF THE + PLURAL NOUN + WHO/THAT + ______ requires a SINGULAR verb for the "_____".


In this case, only one of the NOUNs actually does whatever "_____" refers to, so we stick with the singular verb.
Example:
marina is the only one of the girls who has ever been to india.

The following examples are both correct:
(1) he is one of the people who bake special cakes.
(2) he is the only one of the people who bakes special cakes.

This actually isn't as hard as pure memorization might make it seem: all you have to do is think about the LITERAL MEANING of what you're writing.
In my #1, there are lots of people who bake special cakes, so "bake" should be plural.
In my #2, the man in question is the ONLY person who bakes special cakes, so the verb should be singular.

Here's another way to think about it: you can DECONSTRUCT the sentence, and tell exactly which noun / construction the verb "belongs" to. (i have no idea whether this is a formal grammar concept or not, but it works.)

in my #1:
PEOPLE bake cakes. (--> plural "bake")
he is one of them.
(he is not "one who bakes cakes")

in my #2:
there are a bunch of PEOPLE.
he is THE ONE who BAKES cakes. (--> singular "bakes")
(there are not "people who bake cakes")

Hope this helps !

Courtesy : Ron Purewal's explanation on some other forums. I have only recollected these concepts while searching for "one of" SV agreement rules and sharing it here for the benefit of all GC members.
Show more


Nicely done, the last rule is important :)
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Subject Verb agreement rules : Myth of "One of.." 25 Apr 2017, 05:28
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igloo

Subject Verb agreement rules : Myth of "One of.."


    1. One of the X's that/who <plural>
    2. One of the X's <singular>
    3. Only one of the X's <singular>
    4. Only one of the X's that/who <plural>
    5. The only one of the X's that/who <singular>


Explanations :


I. If you have just ONE OF THE + PLURAL NOUN + WHO/THAT + ______, and it's NOT "the only one", THEN "____" MUST be a PLURAL VERB.
zero exceptions.


Example:
that's one of the birds that fly over my house at night.

here's the rationale, if you care about reasons: the idea is that there is a whole group of NOUNs (whatever they are) that do ______, and we're singling out one of them.

notice that the RELATIVE PRONOUN (WHO/THAT) is absolutely crucial here.


II. If that isn't there - i.e., if "one of the NOUNs" is actually the SUBJECT of the ____ verb - then you take a singular verb instead


Example:
one of the birds flies over the house; the other one flies past it.


III. Finally, to complicate things further, THE ONLY ONE OF THE + PLURAL NOUN + WHO/THAT + ______ requires a SINGULAR verb for the "_____".


In this case, only one of the NOUNs actually does whatever "_____" refers to, so we stick with the singular verb.
Example:
marina is the only one of the girls who has ever been to india.

The following examples are both correct:
(1) he is one of the people who bake special cakes.
(2) he is the only one of the people who bakes special cakes.

This actually isn't as hard as pure memorization might make it seem: all you have to do is think about the LITERAL MEANING of what you're writing.
In my #1, there are lots of people who bake special cakes, so "bake" should be plural.
In my #2, the man in question is the ONLY person who bakes special cakes, so the verb should be singular.

Here's another way to think about it: you can DECONSTRUCT the sentence, and tell exactly which noun / construction the verb "belongs" to. (i have no idea whether this is a formal grammar concept or not, but it works.)

in my #1:
PEOPLE bake cakes. (--> plural "bake")
he is one of them.
(he is not "one who bakes cakes")

in my #2:
there are a bunch of PEOPLE.
he is THE ONE who BAKES cakes. (--> singular "bakes")
(there are not "people who bake cakes")

Hope this helps !

Courtesy : Ron Purewal's explanation on some other forums. I have only recollected these concepts while searching for "one of" SV agreement rules and sharing it here for the benefit of all GC members.
Show more


Thanks a lot for the expplanations. Has cleared most of my doubts.
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Pranjal3107
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Subject Verb agreement rules : Myth of "One of.." 18 Dec 2020, 23:43
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Hi,

Do the above rules also apply for "one of" ? Or do they only apply for "one of the"
https://gmatclub.com/forum/one-of-four- ... -2764.html

in the above qn, One baby in four-> baby is the subject so it should be singular. However for "one of four babies" why is it singular again ?
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Subject Verb agreement rules : Myth of "One of.." 19 Jun 2023, 01:45
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The rule that a verb should agree with the closest noun when a singular subject is preceded by a phrase beginning with "one of" is a myth. The verb should agree with the subject of the sentence, not the noun in the phrase.

For example, the sentence "One of the birds is flying" is correct because the subject of the sentence is "one of the birds," which is singular. The phrase "one of the birds" does not change the fact that the subject is singular.

The following are some other examples of sentences where the verb agrees with the subject, not the noun in the phrase beginning with "one of":

One of the students is late.
One of the cars is red.
One of the houses is on fire.
It is important to remember that the verb should agree with the subject of the sentence, not the noun in the phrase beginning with "one of." This will help you avoid making grammatical errors in your writing.

Here are some additional tips for understanding subject-verb agreement:

Identify the subject of the sentence. The subject is the person, place, thing, or idea that performs the action of the verb.
Identify the verb. The verb is the action word in the sentence.
Make sure the verb agrees with the subject in number. The verb should be singular if the subject is singular, and plural if the subject is plural.
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