“only one in seven make it” instead of “makes” — why?
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“only one in seven make it” instead of “makes” — why?
For example, thousands have tried to conquer Mount Everest.
Of those who make the attempt, only one in seven make it to the top.
In the second sentence, why the verb 'make' isn't 'makes'?
It seems that subject is 'only one',which is singular.
Did I misunderstand the whole sentence?
If there are exception for this, what else would be?
The whole paragraph is here.
Anything worth having takes time. “What we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly,” Thomas Paine wrote. But in addition to hard work and the occasional long wait or detour through the wilderness, a key ingredient is vision. For example, thousands have tried to conquer Mount Everest. Of those who make the attempt, only one in seven make it to the top. One of the greatest factors in success versus failure is the climbers’ ability to see where they are headed. When storms blow in and obscure the top of the mountain, the climbers grow discouraged and despondent and consider retreat. But when storm air clears and the climbers see the peak again, the journey becomes easier, commitment renews, and faith is strengthened. Suddenly, getting there feels possible.
Thank you for editing my question. It is much more accurate question that I wanted to ask. Unfortunately, it is from one of Korean English learning materials. So, I googled part of it so that I can find where the whole paragraph came from and nothing came out. Stil, I'm attaching the whole paragraph in question.
– SinyongKim
4 hours ago
2 Answers
2
For example, thousands have tried to conquer Mount Everest. Of those
who make the attempt, [only one in seven make/makes it to the top].
The head of the bracketed noun phrase is the plural "seven", so the plural verb "make" follows the simple agreement rule.
However, the verb can be singular as well as plural, where the singular override is clearly motivated by the presence of singular "one".
I am not convinced that seven is the subject of the sentence. one in seven is a fraction, and you need to look at what it's a fraction of.
– JavaLatte
3 hours ago
"One in seven" is a DP with the PP "in seven" as post head modifier. "Seven" is a fused deteminer-head where it is simultaneous head and determiner in the NP: we understand it as "one in seven x", where the head is x, and since "seven x" can only be plural, the verb too should be plural. But as I said, singular override is certainly possible and not ungrammatical.
– BillJ
2 hours ago
,,so you would say "Of the days of the week, one in seven are a sunday"?
– JavaLatte
1 hour ago
Do you see any reason for the verb agreement in "one in seven (days)" to differ from "one in seven (climbers)"?
– BillJ
42 mins ago
Yes. Last time I checked, there were seven days in a week, so one in seven days of the week is one. There are thousands of climbers, so one in seven is quite a lot. As you point out, it's the implied "days" or "climbers" that's the subject, not the seven.
– JavaLatte
10 mins ago
I guess that you think it should be "makes" because of the one, but it is just a part of the fraction "one in seven": it is not the subject of the phrasal verb make it.
You have to rearrange the sentence a little to find the real subject, which is the compound noun one in seven of those who make the attempt, and as the previous sentence explains that those who make the attempt is thousands, one in seven of those... is definitely more than one, so the plural form of the verb make is required.
Or you could say, For every seven climbers who attempt it, only one of them will make it. (Which, because of tense, is a singular form of the verb despite having a singular subject.) That would neatly bypass the issue.
– Jason Bassford
3 mins ago
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– Michael Rybkin
4 hours ago