Writing Question

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>Fifty percent of the people alive today (have) never made a phone call, (but) thirty percent (still) have no electricity connections to (their) homes. No error.</p>

<p>I thought "have" and "their" are wrong because they should be singular, since the subject refers to a quantity/amount and answers the question "how much?". We say: "twenty percent of the class is going to fail the test". So, "have" should be "has", and "their" should be "its"???</p>

<p>The answer is "but", because it makes an illogical transition between the clauses. </p>

<p>Are all three wrong? Or can phrases referring to measurement, quantity/amount be flexible like collective nouns, meaning you can use the plural form and the singular form? For collective nouns, it depends on how you refer to them---as discrete entities or as a single unit.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

2

<p>people is plural, you would not say people has never, instead you would say people have never</p>

3

<p>and however would be grammatically correct (instead of but)</p>

4

<p>I think “and” would make a better transition because the clauses both describe people in miserable conditions. Rather than contrasting these people, the sentence complements one to another to make a sentence on some population. </p>

<p>The subject is not “people”, but “fifty percent of the people”/“thirty percent of the people”.</p>

5

<p>ah you are right i misread the sentence, but the sentence says still have, and you can assume from that that have is correct, as well as their</p>