Quote:
Originally Posted by Doitsu
As for the OP's question, if you search for "one in six boys are" with Google, you get about three times as many hits than for "one in six boys is," which doesn't really prove anything, after all, you get about 25 million hits for "recieve," which still hasn't been accepted as an alternative spelling of "receive."  |
Have you come across
Dialecticon? This examines frequency based on web site origin.
Of course, web site origin is hard to determine, so results are only a guideline, but it's usually pretty good at indicating what is the norm in US, UK, Canada an Australia.
For "one in six boys is" vs "one in six boys are", we get
US: 28%:72%
Canada: 55%:45%
Australia: 35%:65%
UK: 75%:25%
So in the US use 'are', in the UK use 'is'. In Canada toss a coin. In Australia, 'are' is probably the one to go for.
Usually, Australia matches the UK. But not in this case.
[Edit: Got the is/are the wrong way around when I summarised (now fixed). Personal bias - despite being in the UK, I feel that 'are' is right .
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