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Which one is the correct one?

  1. A total of 10 babies is sleeping. (A)
  2. A total of 10 babies are sleeping. (B)
  3. Ten babies in total are sleeping. (C)

For me, both (A) and (C) are correct. But (B) is also used in speech.

herisson
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Display Name
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    I'd vote for B and C. The first one is just wrong. – Robusto Jan 12 '11 at 02:01
  • @Robusto: "There is a total of ten babies" v.s. "There are a total of ten babies", which one is the correct one? – Display Name Jan 12 '11 at 02:03
  • I would recast the sentence and skirt the issue. :) But "There is a total of ten babies" is correct. – Robusto Jan 12 '11 at 02:04
  • Hmm, interesting. – Jimi Oke Jan 12 '11 at 04:08
  • I find that I can say "There is a total of ten babies" and "There are a total of ten babies". – Kosmonaut Jan 12 '11 at 04:23
  • It is not always easy to determine the semantic "main" component, the whole or the parts. I suspect that it has also something to do with common word/syntax patterns. – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Jan 12 '11 at 04:52
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    @xport: You can say "There is a total", because there it's the total that's doing the "being" (although as @Kosmonaut notes "there are a total of ten babies" works too, because the babies are also "being"!). "A total of ten babies are sleeping", because there the babies are doing the sleeping, definitely not the total! In English it's the number of the (sometimes implied) semantic subject that determines the verb agreement, whereas in other languages it's the grammatical subject. See @Cerberus's answer for more details on the general rule :) – psmears Jan 12 '11 at 15:27

3 Answers3

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(B) is perfectly correct in either American or British English. Take a look at this example from the Cambridge Dictionaries Online:

A total of 21 horses were entered for the race.

(C) is also correct, as ten babies is explicitly plural, and should thus take the plural are.

(A) is not correct because the collective noun total should always be treated in the plural sense when

  1. it is explicitly used with the word, number, or the word, number, is implied (in a strict sense*),
  2. the items being counted are identified/clarified/specified, AND
  3. the size of the number is given.

In the following examples, all conditions are satisfied:

  • A total of number of 3500 students were at the seminar. [Plural]
  • A total [number] of 11 shells are in my possession. [Plural]

In this example, conditions (1) and (2) are satisfied, but condition (3) isn't:

  • The total number of students in attendance was unbelievably large. [Singular]

In the first sentence of this example, only condition (3) is satisfied, while none of the conditions is satisfied in the second sentence:

  • My total is 11. Theirs is much higher. [Singular]

Finally, in this case, condition (1) is not satisfied:

  • 'How many pennies do we now have?' 'The current total is 22.' [Singular]

Thus, total should be treated as singular whenever these conditions are not satisfied at the same time. (This rule should not be applied with the construction There is/are.)

The agreement between nouns (collective, in this case) and verbs is called concord and much has been published on its often confusing rules of usage. The most interesting and informative article I found in the course of answering this question, was "Concord", by Marianne Drennan. (It is of South African origin, so it is likely closer to British English but, excellent article nonetheless.)

Also of note is the pronounced difference in the treatment of collective nouns between British and American English. Some collective nouns are mostly treated as singular in American English but often considered plural in British English. Two quick examples are team and family. See this note on grammar at Oxford Dictionaries Online for more information on this phenomenon. The treatment of total, however, transcends this analysis for the most part. Consider, however, another interesting example provided, in part, by the asker (@xport):

  • There are ten babies. [Universally correct]
  • There are ten babies in total. [Universally correct]
  • There are a total of ten babies. [Plural. British?]
  • There is a total of ten babies. [Singular. American?]

I'm not sure if the British/American analysis holds here, as one would find both forms (there is/there are) widely used. There are certainly sounds better, but some would argue that there is is more correct, because, strictly speaking, total by itself should be a singular noun. ("Says who?" others may counter!) Consider this, though:

There is/are a total number of ten babies. [?!]

I will not comment on this. Suffice it to say that this worrisome situation can always be avoided.

**in a strict sense* since the word, total, always involves a number, anyway. Try to see if you can insert the word number into your sentence (if it isn't already there) without losing the intended meaning. If this can be done, then it means the word, number is implied.

Jimi Oke
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  • @Jimi: Thanks for the detailed answer. Can a word "total" stand without "a"? (example: "There are total of 12 pens.") – Display Name Jan 12 '11 at 03:57
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    @xport: You're welcome. When used within a proper sentence, the noun total is always preceded by an article (a/the), pronoun (their/his, etc) or preposition (in). Thus, "There are total of 12 pens" is incorrect without the indefinite article a. – Jimi Oke Jan 12 '11 at 04:04
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    @Jimi: is part of the distinction the semantic fact that in the OP’s example, it is the babies who are sleeping, not the total, whereas in “a total of ten gold badges is rather impressive”, it is the total that is impressive, not the individual badges? – PLL Jan 12 '11 at 04:05
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    Meh, I have no choice but to upvote my competitor. Well said. +1 – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Jan 12 '11 at 04:09
  • @xport: Interesting example: "There is/are". I'll edit my answer... – Jimi Oke Jan 12 '11 at 04:11
  • @PLL: Yeah, I thought about that, too... but I was trying to find one universal rule to explain the singular/plural treatment. There's the semantic fact, but other things at play, as well, in my other examples. Fail... I'm getting tired here and my brain is shutting down. If you can give a better answer, that would be great, or I'll turn this into a community wiki, or I'll come up with something tomorrow morning (whichever comes first) ;-) – Jimi Oke Jan 12 '11 at 04:15
  • @Cerberus: magnanimous gesture appreciated :) – Jimi Oke Jan 12 '11 at 04:17
  • @PLL: I think you are right and this is the traditional way to explain it. You probably know this, but the problem is often, with other nouns of multitude, how to identify whether it is the whole or the parts that are the topic. Consider "a group of witches were/was approaching". I couldn't say which one was the topic: the witches were approaching, or the group was approaching? Both interpretations sound reasonable. – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Jan 12 '11 at 04:31
  • @PLL: just came up with a few conditions that I think can be universally applied to this total dilemma, excluding the There is/are case, of course! – Jimi Oke Jan 12 '11 at 05:05
  • @JimiOke., FYI your Concord article link is missing. You may want to update to point to https://web.archive.org/web/20130106195807/http://www.fs.gov.za/departments/sac/library/depart/language_articles.htm. I wouldn't typically bother but you recommended it. – CoolHandLouis Jul 16 '14 at 07:42
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In England, B is normally the preferred choice (including Fowler's, whom I do not have with me to quote from); in America, it would also be B, though a singular verb would be used with some other nouns of multitude. Construction C is always right.

This usage (B) is called synesis (Greek), constructio ad sententiam (Latin, the term I prefer), constructio ad sensum (Latin), notational agreement, or situational agreement.

It means that a singular noun can take a plural verb if it refers to several things in the real world. This exists in many languages under various conditions, including English, Dutch, Latin, and Greek. It also applies to choosing the right pronoun, such as its versus their. In general it happens only when this reference to more than one thing is intended:

  1. The police have arrested a man—the writer has in his mind the image of several policemen holding a man.

  2. The police is the first institution that we should try to reform—the writer has the whole institution in mind.

In practice, situations where such a noun refers to several things are much more common than those in which it refers to a single, whole thing.

Cerberus - Reinstate Monica
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    Yes. In English the verb is singular or plural according to whether the action is considered by the speaker to be carried out by one or multiple entities, not by whether the noun employed is grammatically singular or plural. So, to take one example, talking about British politics one could say "The cabinet is divided" (one entity - the group - is split), but "The cabinet are in agreement" (all the individuals agree). Also consider the difference in meaning between "My family is big" (it contains a lot of people), and "My family are big" (each of them is larger than average) :-) – psmears Jan 12 '11 at 15:25
  • @Psmears: Ha, especially this family is a great example. – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Jan 12 '11 at 21:29
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A total of 10 babies is sleeping. The subject in this sentence is "total." The verb is "is." The subject and verb must be in agreement. Both are singular. Babies is the object of the prepositional phrase "of 10 babies," and is not the subject. If the sentence read "Ten babies are sleeping," then the verb would be "are," because "are" is plural and in agreement with the plural subject "babies."

Jon
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    I'm sorry, but this isn't right. The verb for "a total of" can be either singular or plural, depending on which noun is performing the action. In this case, the "total" is not sleeping; it is the "ten babies" who are sleeping, so you use the singular. In the sentence "A total of ten babies is the largest born on a single day in this hospital", you would need to use the verb "is" because here the "total" is large and not the "ten babies". In English, a number of constructions behave this way. – Peter Shor Feb 03 '12 at 22:07
  • @PeterShor what about "The number" instead? "The number of animals (in the forest) is high" -- isn't a prepositional phrase not the main "actor?" Or is this only for the word "total?" Very inconsistent... different books give different rules. From: https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/sentences/20-rules-of-subject-verb-agreement.html

    "3. Prepositional phrases between the subject and verb usually do not affect agreement.

    The colors of the rainbow are beautiful."

    So in "the bags of clothing are close" it's a plural compared to "the bags of clothing is close" which is just wrong?

     – Lucidity of Power Mar 09 '20 at 13:53
  • "The number" is high — "the animals" themselves are not high. – Peter Shor Mar 09 '20 at 15:40