Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Would you object to "1 boy in every 6 is abused", Hitch? That equally means "1/6th of all boys", but to me that construction demands a singular verb even more strongly.
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Actually, Harry, at that point--and at the original--I would have recrafted the sentence, just for the very reason this thread has gone on for ages; although the intent of the writer is clear (essentially, "here's a shocking statistic"), the fact that 20-some-odd of us can sit here and argue about what's the subject and/or the noun and whether or not "1 in 6" means one boy or all boys or 1/6th of all boys, means that the sentence is poorly written.
I would agree with you that to my ear, "1 boy in every 6 is abused"
sounds right. I fear, though, that the same reality applies--we're not talking, in this sentence, about ONE boy. We're still talking about 1/6th of all Australian boy(S). And that one boy, singular, is the subject of the sentence, and the "1" is now the modifier, making it clear that it's singular. Thus, we get to "is," rather than "are." The sentence and the meaning would have been better served had the original author written: "16.66% of all Australian boys are molested. That's 1 boy out of every 6," (or "[t]hat's one boy out of every 6 boys," or however s/he wanted to state it).
This entire discussion is highly reminiscent of the heated debate (amongst pedants) about "better than me/I." LOL! (Pronouns as subjects/objects). I had a client (new) send me a wee note, a few years back, because I had ended an email to him saying, "You would know better than I." He wrote back, and condescendingly told me that I must be young, and belong to that generation that wasn't taught any better. All of you here can just imagine how charmingly that sat with me.
So I wrote back and said "REALLY? So, I've had it wrong all this time? Had I written the sentence out in full, I should have said 'You would know better than me would?'"
Curiously enough, I don't believe I've heard back from him on grammar since.
Hitch