reach or reaches?

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retrosorter - 30 May 2009 16:17 GMT

In the following sentence, is it "reach" or "reaches"?

They have improved access to higher education - currently 40% of the
population _____ university level.

Thanks

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John Kane - 30 May 2009 16:21 GMT

> In the following sentence, is it "reach" or "reaches"?
>
> They have improved access to higher education - currently 40% of the
> population _____ university level.
>
> Thanks

Reaches

40% is singular.

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Leslie Danks - 30 May 2009 18:00 GMT

>> In the following sentence, is it "reach" or "reaches"?
>>
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> 40% is singular.

But "40% of the population" is plural. In practice, both forms occur;
according to a quick Google, the singular form is used roughly twice as
often as the plural form. Burchfield writes:

"But the choice of concord is often governed by which element of the
construction is felt by the writer or speaker to be dominant. Many people
would have written the first example ["Fifteen percent of the electorate
has yet to make up its mind."] as "Fifteen percent of the electorate have
yet to make up their mind(s)."

IOW, singular is more common, but plural will not mark you as illiterate.

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Les (BrE)

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Glenn Knickerbocker - 30 May 2009 18:34 GMT

>>> In the following sentence, is it "reach" or "reaches"?
>>> They have improved access to higher education - currently 40% of the
>>> population _____ university level.
>> 40% is singular.
>But "40% of the population" is plural. In practice, both forms occur;

In this exact context, "they" and "the population" refer to the same
people, so it's probably clearest to use the plural. Also, that 40%
doesn't reach the population as a coherent group; its members reach it
individually.

¬R http://users.bestweb.net/~notr You are already too educated stupid to
understand the truth of nature's harmonic simultaneous 4-liter wine cube

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Mark Brader - 30 May 2009 20:53 GMT

H. Richler:

> In the following sentence, is it "reach" or "reaches"?
>
> They have improved access to higher education - currently 40% of the
> population _____ university level.

I'd use "reaches", construing "40% of the population" as a measurement
and therefore singular, but I think it could go either way, with the
plural perhaps more likely in Rightpondia.

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Mark Brader, Toronto | "Ask not for whom the compiler waits;
msb@vex.net | it waits for thee." -- Henry Spencer

My text in this article is in the public domain.

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Cece - 30 May 2009 21:55 GMT

> H. Richler:
>
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>
> My text in this article is in the public domain.

Exactly what I was thinking. Over here in Leftpondia, the verb should
be the singular. Over there . . .

Cece, Texas

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Robert Bannister - 31 May 2009 00:29 GMT

> H. Richler:
>> In the following sentence, is it "reach" or "reaches"?
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> and therefore singular, but I think it could go either way, with the
> plural perhaps more likely in Rightpondia.

I don't think one is more likely than the other. As Leslie explained, it
all depends on how you're thinking about the phrase at the time - an
amount or a number.

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Rob Bannister

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Discussion Groups / English Usage / May 2009

reach or reaches?