NYTimes grammar

Dec 14, 2010 09:11

"Only about one in four doctors, mostly in large group practices, is using
the electronic record system." [from Panel Set to Study Safety of
Electronic Patient DataIMHO, "one in four doctors" is clearly plural. And when you add "about", it makes it even more obvious. Should it matter whether you say "one in four" or "one quarter of" or "25% of"? ( Read more... )

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pwaa December 14 2010, 15:33:03 UTC
Technically, the subject is "one," which is singular. The "in four doctors" modifies "one." If they said "one quarter of" then it would be plural. Same for "two in eight" or "twenty-five percent."

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pwaa December 14 2010, 15:57:34 UTC
...but to get a second opinion, I'll re-post the quote to grammargasm and see what they think.

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pwaa December 15 2010, 04:46:13 UTC
...and every one of them agrees with me.

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ms_0 December 15 2010, 15:48:28 UTC
Why wouldn't "one quarter" also be singular then?

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