1 in 7 appleS becomeS green? or, 1 in 7 apple becomeS green? or, 1 in 7 appleS become green?

Question

Which of the following is proper grammar usage?

1 in 7 apples becomes green
1 in 7 apple becomes green
1 in 7 apples become green

score 8 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:38

8

One in seven apples becomes green.

("One in seven apples" means "one [apple] in seven apples"; the "apples" belongs to the "seven", but the verb agrees with the "one [apple]".)

Edited to add: Maybe there's a dialectal difference, or other point of disagreement? Edwin Ashworth links to a similar question whose answers, and their vote-counts, seem to suggest a division between those who agree with me and those would accept "One in seven apples become green." I'm still inclined to recommend becomes, because I know that some speakers accept only become and I do not know whether any accept only become, but that's a recommendation grounded in uncertainty. Hopefully someone can provide more useful evidence.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:38

Community

1

answered Mar 13 '14 at 17:18

ruakh

15,216

2

This is not in line with the most upvoted answers in the thread of which this is a duplicate. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 13 '14 at 21:11
1

@EdwinAshworth: Hmm, you're right. That answer is clearly not by an American, so maybe this is a dialect-dependent issue? (Most of the answers to that question agree with me that the verb should be singular. The top-voted answer thinks that this is "prescriptivists bemoaning" reality, but I'm not a prescriptivist condemning a usage I've encountered, I'm a descriptivist saying that I don't remember encountering this usage. That suggests an unacknowledged dialect difference.) – ruakh Mar 13 '14 at 22:19
At least one comment over there mentions, and I agree, that this is an AE vs. BE split. – Joe M Mar 13 '14 at 22:26
What @Edwin said. This answer is just plain *wrong, in that it's perfectly normal, logical, and* "grammatical" to use the plural verb form here. In the more general case, both are valid, but personally I think I would prefer plural here, since we're probably talking about far more than just that one apple (in total, it might be one million apples out of an original seven million, for example). – FumbleFingers Mar 13 '14 at 22:29
@ruakh: It's not "evidence", obviously, but there are 5 instances of "one in five voters are", compared to only 4 instances of "one in five voters is". I've no reason to suppose there's any significant regional/dialectal factor in this, apart from the faint possibility that there might be more prescriptive grammarians in the US than the UK. – FumbleFingers Mar 13 '14 at 22:36
@FumbleFingers Read your examples more closely. In all of the "voters are" examples, the context causes the "one" to be something other than one. 2x"more than one", 2x"approximately one", 1x"over one". The counterexamples are similarly equivocal about the pure unity of "one" except the lone example "Only one in five voters is". I agree that both are generally correct, but in a sentence such as OP's example, I prefer the singular form because in the absence of modifiers to the contrary a one is a one is a one. A unity is, but an approximate or surpassed unity are. – Jonathan Van Matre Mar 13 '14 at 22:44
@FumbleFingers: Sorry, but you're simply mistaken. (Obviously. I'd say that it goes without saying, except that you apparently need it said . . .) – ruakh Mar 13 '14 at 22:52
@Jonathan: I didn't read them at all, so there's no question of reading them more closely. I'm quite happy to use singular or plural as suits the context, and I already gave my reason for preferring plural in this particular case. Not that there's enough context to feel strongly one way or the other, and not that it would necessarily be a clear-cut decision if we did have more context. I downvoted before this answer was edited to acknowledge the possibility of other opinions, but I stand by my downvote even now. It's pointless saying either is "right" here, and wrong to say either is wrong – FumbleFingers Mar 13 '14 at 22:53
@FumbleFingers: Anyway, I suggest you delete your earlier comment suggesting that you did think it related to dialect, since you now consider that to be wrong . . . – ruakh Mar 13 '14 at 22:56
@ruakh: Wot? The comment I made nearly two years ago saying Americans are more rigid about observing that it's one in ten, or a single company. ? I'd forgotten having said that, but obviously I still think that's at least a "faint possibility", since I just repeated the point above. But I wouldn't call that a "dialectal" difference as such. It's just that US tendency towards "grammatical rigidity" that forces a company to be singular in all contexts, even those where plural makes more sense. – FumbleFingers Mar 13 '14 at 23:04
@FumbleFingers In saying that it is "perfectly...logical...to use the plural verb form" are you not saying with the word "perfectly" that there is no possible way the singular form could ever be a better choice? – Jonathan Van Matre Mar 13 '14 at 23:24
@FumbleFingers: That's absurd, but O.K. At least your absurdity is less annoying than the more usual prescriptivist one, where people insist that everyone else's usage is "loose". – ruakh Mar 13 '14 at 23:24
@Jonathan: Not at all - both versions work for me. Perhaps I could have phrased that better. UK usage in many areas of this whole singular/plural debate seems to be a lot more flexible than it is for (some) US speakers - we routinely vary the plurality in many constructions according to the semantic requirements. So it's usually the family is* united* for us because the family is a collective unit with a collective attitude. But we've no problem with the family are* on holiday* because it's perfectly reasonable to see them there as a group of separate individuals. – FumbleFingers Mar 13 '14 at 23:36
@FumbleFingers Yes, I think "according to the semantic requirements" is the crux of it. That's why I brought up context: this is a matter of usage that is difficult to generalize because the singularity or plurality of a subject that can be seen to have either is so dependent on the semantic intent. But for myself, and apparently for either of us, given a specific example there will be a strong sense of the usage that particular sentence requires. As you have seen, for inanimate objects I tend more toward the mathematician's rigidity while for human endeavors I'm more flexible. – Jonathan Van Matre Mar 13 '14 at 23:53
The singular verb is correct. The scenario is repeating many times, but In each set of seven apples, one apple becomes green. The subject of becomes is one apple. – Ben Voigt Mar 13 '14 at 23:55
@FumbleFingers: Your the family is united example intrigues me. In U.S. English, we'd often say (for example) The family is united in their determination (though its is also acceptable, and perhaps preferable). In U.K. English, does that sound contradictory to you? Are you forced to choose between are united in their and is united in its? – ruakh Mar 14 '14 at 00:00
@ruakh: Singular "they" is at least as "natural" in UK as US usage, but we're perfectly happy to treat companies, groups, families, etc. as singular or plural according to context (and the whims of the speaker/writer). So it's "Microsoft have* announced their plans"* or "Microsoft has* announced its plans"* - we don't really have to bother with the potentially awkward pairing *has...their*. – FumbleFingers Mar 14 '14 at 13:40
@FumbleFingers: "Family ... their" is not an example of singular they. (And "has ... their" is no more "potentially awkward" in U.S. English than "Microsoft have" is in U.K. English. I'm really shocked at how provincial your attitudes about this are.) – ruakh Mar 14 '14 at 15:34

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 13 '14 at 23:48

The phrase "1 in 7" is basically expressing a fraction, not a count. It is not the equivalent of "one", it is the equivalent of "1/7 of the population".

Replace "1 in 7" with "Some" and see what sounds better

Some apples become green.

Some apples becomes green.

"Some apples" is plural, so the plural form of the verb holds.

Howevever, if the phrase was "1 of the 7 apples becomes green" that would be the singular case.

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 13 '14 at 22:45

1 in 7 apples becomes green.

The subject is singular, therefor use the singular version of the verb "become". Example: A cat becomes fat. Cat as the subject of this sentence is singular. Therefore the sentence requires the singular version of the verb. If you want to debate what the actual subject of the sentence in question is, know this: "... in 7 apples" is a prepositional phrase and cannot be the subject. Thus, the easy answer to "What is the subject of this sentence?" becomes (haha) "1". Use the singular version of the verb! :)

--Sorry to answer whether to use apples or apple, know this: "7" modifies apples, so apples has to be plural. "1" is the subject, and "in 7 apples" is a prepositional phrase modifying the subject.

1 in 7 apples becomes green.

As noted on the related question, a lot depends upon whether the phrase "one in seven" is interpreted as an idiomatic entity, or as "one" modified by the prepositional phrase "in seven". As also noted there, changing it to "one seventh of the apples" would make it plural, even though the number of instances of the subject "seventh" is exactly "one". I think "one in seven" would generally conjugate singular, but would not go so far as to say the plural would be erroneous. — supercat, Mar 13 '14 at 23:03

score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 13 '14 at 22:53

-1

Maybe the best way to answer this is to understand what the sentence really means : among seven apples, only one becomes green, while the six others don't.

As you can see, the answer is obvious, which is "1 in 7 apple*s* become*s* green" and any other form is simply wrong and/or meaningless.

answered Mar 13 '14 at 22:53

ahmed

99

1

I don't think an appeal to semantics helps here, since what "one in seven apples becomes green" really really means is "one-seventh of apples become green". I mean, no one is promising that if you take exactly seven apples, exactly one will become green. – ruakh Mar 13 '14 at 22:58
What if the OP really meant that exactly one apple out of seven becomes green ? Are we supposed to make assumptions about the context when we're discussing grammar ? – ahmed Mar 13 '14 at 23:18
1

As long as there are more than seven apples in the world, there will always -- necessarily -- be a set of seven apples such that the number that will turn green is either zero or greater than one. So this isn't much of an assumption. – ruakh Mar 13 '14 at 23:29

score -1 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 13 '14 at 23:54

One apple in seven becomes green.

The singular verb is correct. The scenario is repeating many times, but In each set of seven apples, one apple becomes green. The subject of becomes is one apple.

Or

One seventh of the apples become green.

Now you are talking about the group becoming green, and that group is a number of apples all becoming green. So the plural verb is used.

1 in 7 appleS becomeS green? or, 1 in 7 apple becomeS green? or, 1 in 7 appleS become green?

5 Answers5