Quote:
Originally Posted by MacEachaidh
The subject is actually a noun that is implied, and not visible in the sentence. The phrase in full is in fact "1 boy out of 6 boys", which boils down to "1 boy" being the subject. Similarly, you could express the phrase as "1 boy in 6", which still makes "1 boy" the subject. So yeah, the subject is singular.
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Exactly what I would have said. If it has actually been written as a fraction, ie one sixth of boys, I would have used the plural, but in this case, I would mentally insert the implied noun and use a singular verb.