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Here are some sentences with 'half of' and plural nouns that I consider to be well-formed:

Half of all films are a waste of celluloid.
Half of users surveyed said they preferred the old product.
Half of the women here are your ex-girlfriends.
Half of Americans are uninsured.

Here are some sentences with 'half of' and plural nouns that don't feel well-formed to me:

Half of people are women.
Half of books are hardback.
Half of dogs are neutered.
Half of fruits are citrus.

To me, the above require 'all' before the noun or some other form of modification to sound correct or at least less awkward. (In fact, part of my problem is deciding whether these sentences sound wrong because of grammar or semantics.)

I'd appreciate either:

  1. To be told my second set of examples are actually fine (preferably with links to similar examples).
  2. A clear rule for when one can use 'half of' with a plural noun. It can't be just about modification if the 'Half of Americans' sentence is well-formed.
choster
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Adam
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  • "Half of Americans are uninsured" doesn't sound right to me. – Lightness Races in Orbit May 31 '11 at 18:28
  • @Tomalak Geret'kal Thanks. Do you think that is a grammatical problem or a semantic one? – Adam Jun 01 '11 at 08:46
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    @Adam: A combination, perhaps. All the other subjects in your "well-formed" list are qualified, be it with an singular article ("the"/"a"), a whatever-you-call-it ("all"), or through a more complex construct where an article is usually in some way implied (e.g. "[the] users [that were] surveyed"). – Lightness Races in Orbit Jun 01 '11 at 09:02
  • @Tomalak Geret'kal Yes, I noticed that (thus my final sentence) and deliberately included the 'Americans' example as most people I asked considered it well-formed. Interesting to hear that you don't; there does seem to be some disagreement over my examples. – Adam Jun 01 '11 at 18:36
  • @Tomalak Geret'kal Well, I've never been to the US and it sounds fine to me, so I'm not sure it's solely about regional differences. As per Robusto's answer, I'm tending towards the belief that it's not really about grammar at all. – Adam Jun 02 '11 at 06:51
  • @Adam: I'd put forth that for something to "feel awkward", it's going to be grammatically incorrect. – Lightness Races in Orbit Jun 02 '11 at 08:43
  • @Tomalak Geret'kal I see where you're coming from. 'Awkward' may not mean the same thing to everyone, but here is an example of the sort of sentence I'm thinking about: "Victims did not present their opinions on the situation even through their own guardian." Grammatically fine, but stylistically awkward. Here is another view: http://www1.villanova.edu/content/villanova/artsci/vcle/writingcenter/resources/handouts/_jcr_content/pagecontent/download/file.res/AvoidingAwkwardSentences.pdf – Adam Jun 02 '11 at 16:27

2 Answers2

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You can use "half of" with plural nouns most effectively when you add the definite article:

Half of the users were women.

Half of the men were Canadian.

The reason for this is because you need to specify the group you are talking about. The definite article serves to limit the scope of the plural noun. It may require further limiting ("Half of the men studied were Canadian") but it doesn't sound awkward, because the reader or listener will presume that there is another qualifier modifying "Canadians" to which the definite article refers.

This is similar to the function performed by all and other qualifiers in your first set of examples. In that sense, in the first example you are declaring the scope to be the set that includes all films.

Half of all films are a waste of celluloid. [all provides the scope]

Half of users surveyed said they preferred the old product. [users surveyed provides the scope]

Half of the women here are your ex-girlfriends. [here provides the scope]

Half of Americans are uninsured. [Americans provides the scope, but maybe not enough].

There is no grammatical problem with saying:

Half of fruits are citrus.

It just sounds awkward, because the statement feels too general.

Community
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Robusto
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  • Thanks, @Robusto. Are you saying then, that the only problem with my second set of example sentences is that they are semantically unclear, rather than grammatically ill-formed? (I suspected this, but 'Half of people are women' sounds so weird that I felt it must be in error.) – Adam May 31 '11 at 14:52
  • @Adam Actually, it seems to be more of a grammar rule to use determiner with half of event with singular nouns (http://www.perfectyourenglish.com/usage/half.htm). half of your time, half of his cake and so on. – Philoto May 31 '11 at 15:07
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    +1 @Robusto: I think you've figured out the problem. When you say "Half of" with plural nouns, people expect the scope to be defined in some fashion, and it sounds wrong if it's not. For the fruits example, you can fix it by saying "Half of all fruits are citrus." For the dogs example, you can fix it by defining the scope better: Half of domestic dogs are neutered. But maybe you could call the lack of a defined scope a grammar problem. After all, Half of all fruits isn't any semantically clearer than Half of fruits. – Peter Shor May 31 '11 at 15:18
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    @PeterShor: On a side not, I believe it is said that all came from al + definite article. Cf. OE/ME gen. plur. alther, alder . – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica May 31 '11 at 15:33
  • @Philoto I don't think that's right. (1) You always have to use a determiner before a singular noun, whether or not half of is used. (2) I wasn't asking about singular nouns, I was asking about plural nouns. (3) I don't see any problem with the sentence 'Half of Americans are uninsured.' – Adam May 31 '11 at 15:53
  • @Adam Here Americans is specific enough. About singulars - you can easily say A book would be nice, meaning any book, but you can't say Half of a book was gibberish without specifying explicitly, what book you're talking about. Plurals and singulars are exactly the same here. – Philoto May 31 '11 at 16:19
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    @Philoto: You could say "A book is a coherent statement; half a book is gibberish." – Robusto May 31 '11 at 18:06
  • @Robusto Half a is a bit different from half of as I understand it. Can't put it into words though, just a gut feeling :) – Philoto Jun 01 '11 at 07:28
  • @Philoto If you're saying that Robusto's answer is incorrect and that there is instead a grammatical rule that defines when you can use 'half of' with a plural noun, then you should supply it as an alternate answer. You seem to be asserting several contradictory things and I suspect one of the reasons is that the comment area is too small for outlining answers. – Adam Jun 01 '11 at 07:53
  • @Adam Actually there was one, mainly a link, I've provided in one of my earlier comments, which formulates what Robusto told you as a grammatical rule and not recommendation. Here it is again: http://perfectyourenglish.com/usage/half.htm . I deleted my answer since Robusto's answer was better. And no, I do not disagree with what Robusto told you, since it is a correct answer. My statement about it being more of a rule is simple observation, nothing more :) – Philoto Jun 01 '11 at 07:59
  • @Philoto IMO Robusto says my example sentences are grammatically correct. You claim that one must use a determiner with half of + count nouns, so some of my sentences are incorrect. Your link does not support your position, claiming only that 'We can use half or half of before a noun with a determiner'. (emphasis mine) I also don't see that perfectyourenglish has any particular authority. It's a self-published 'improve your English' site. Their grammar is a cut&paste job - several of the examples on the page you link to have been taken wholesale from Swan's 'Practical English Usage'. – Adam Jun 01 '11 at 08:45
  • @Robusto. Apologies for repeating this comment, but I would really appreciate clarity on this aspect of your answer. Are you saying that the only problem with my second set of example sentences is that they are semantically unclear, rather than grammatically ill-formed? (I suspected this, but 'Half of people are women' sounds so weird that I felt it must be in error.) – Adam Jun 01 '11 at 08:50
  • @Adam: I don't see anything ungrammatical about the construction. I wouldn't use it myself, but I would abstain from calling it ungrammatical just because it sounds awkward to me. There are plenty of grammatical constructions that sound awkward. That is why one must understand style, not just grammar, to be a good writer. – Robusto Jun 01 '11 at 09:43
  • @Robusto Thanks for that. I found this an interesting area. – Adam Jun 01 '11 at 18:38
  • "[users surveyed provides the scope]"; did you mean just "surveyed", for consistency with the other observations? – Lightness Races in Orbit Jun 02 '11 at 09:07
  • @Tomalak: I'm not sure what you're asking me. – Robusto Jun 02 '11 at 09:58
  • @Robusto: e.g. You say "[ all provides the scope]" instead of "[ all films provides the scope]"; but then you say [" users surveyed provides the scope"] instead of "[ surveyed provides the scope]". There's an inconsistency in whether you state just the adjective or also the noun. – Lightness Races in Orbit Jun 02 '11 at 10:14
  • @Tomalak: In "users surveyed" the verb provides the scope. Think of it as "Those users who were surveyed" as opposed to the indefinite "users" ... – Robusto Jun 02 '11 at 10:30
  • @Robusto: Yes, "users surveyed" means "those users that were surveyed". I don't get how that changes anything I said. The verb does provide the scope but, unlike in the other examples, you also included the noun for that one. Oh well. – Lightness Races in Orbit Jun 02 '11 at 11:05
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I asked Google's Ngram Viewer for the respective phrases with "them", as "them" is a strong hint that the group is defined in the context and is less restrictive otherwise (for a high number of hits).

I added traces for "a third of" amplified by 10 to compensate for "a third of" being much lower in frequency than "half of".

As expected, the plural form is much more frequent.

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(Source)

Justin
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Rainald62
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  • Good answer! Could you add a screenshot of the graph too? – marcellothearcane Aug 07 '19 at 11:47
  • I'm not sure about the relevance. OP is asking about the acceptability of 'Half of' with plural nouns. Robusto points out that using the definite article or other 'padding' ('all users', 'users surveyed') is a licensing factor. I'd add that '50% of' doesn't have the same distribution. Are you including 'Half of them' as an example? Verb agreement isn't directly asked about. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 07 '19 at 12:44
  • @Edwin Ashworth: Obviously, I misunderstood the question. It just resonated with the question I had in mind when Google led me here. Should I ask and self-answer elsewhere? – Rainald62 Apr 22 '22 at 17:03
  • 'Half of them is' is ungrammatical/dialect; too basic for an ELU question. – Edwin Ashworth Apr 22 '22 at 19:19