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Nouns that are "collective" (automatically suggesting a group) take a plural verb when the group as a whole is meant; they take a singular verb when the group can be thought of as individual members. Commonly used collective nouns include "number," "majority," "series," and "variety." Note that when collective nouns refer to a singular group as a whole they are often preceded by the word "a"; when they suggest individual group members they are often preceded by the word "the."

“A number of people were affected by the tragedy.”

— Special Cases in Subject Verb Agreement
PennState College of Earth & Mineral Sciences: John A Dutton e-Education Institute

Is this information wrong?
I found this article online and isn’t it the other way around? Should you use collective nouns that refer to a whole group with singular verbs and the individuals with plural verbs? Should the example above be “a number of people was affected by the tragedy?”

tchrist
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Justin
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  • Both 'a [huge] majority of the people was affected' (cf 'the nation as a whole was affected') and 'a majority of the people were affected' (cf 'most / two thirds of the people were affected') are grammatical under the 'logical agreement' rule which I'd say virtually all Anglophones accept, if to different extents. The choice is the writer's: do you want the hearer to focus merely on the stats, or to pick up a hint of all those individuals involved? BUT 'a number of ...' always takes a plural verb form, and 'some of ...' (for count situations, not mass) is a reasonable comparator. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 26 '23 at 14:54

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