<p>Ok, just going through my SAT book and one of the pracice questions was like, you know find the error. "A large number of the village children were infected by parasites..." I said that there was an issue with the verb "were' because the subje ct (a large number) is singular. BUT the answer key says there's no error. I googled the prhase "a large number of children" and ended up with many new articles using that sentence with plural verbs, but doesn't that go against grammar? So, who's right? Should it be "were" or "was?"</p>
<p>The phrase “a number of —” is considered plural. The phrase “the number of —” is considered singular.</p>
<p>Hmm anyone else? I’m talking to an online tutor and he says that you’re wrong…but he hasn’t been much help and has been changing his answer…</p>
<p>Google it and you’ll find plenty of sources confirming what I said.</p>
<p>If 112358 is wrong; the world is going to explode.</p>
<p>112358, go to your visitor messages please. I have a question for you.</p>
<p>And yeah, what he said was right. </p>
<p>Oh and also, between “amount” and “number”, the difference is that one is countable and one isn’t…or something like that. What was the rules for these 2 again?</p>
<p>Even if you didn’t know the rule, couldn’t you tell “was” is incorrect just by reading it in the sentence? Use your ear when all else fails…its right MOST of the time.</p>
<p>Yes, 112358 is correct.</p>
<p>ChelseaSAT is also correct; “number” is countable while “amount” is not.</p>
<p>For example, “the large amount of money” but “the large number of dollars.”</p>