Re: One in three children is/are....?

On Wed, 17 Aug 2005 11:04:59 +0100, "Matti Lamprhey"
<matti@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>"Semantico" <croazhir@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote...
>> Hello all,
>>
>> I have just spotted the following sentence in a reputable broad***
>> newspaper and wonder what you make of the subject/verb agreement.
>>
>> "One in three children are at risk of obesity in this country."
>>
>> I would have used the singular form of the verb but not being a native
>> speaker, I would be grateful for any light which you may shed on this
>> grammatical conundrum.
>>
>> Thanks a lot in advance.
>
>It should always be the singular form, as demonstrated by the trivial
>reformulation "One child in three is ..." -- no-one would consider for a
>moment using "are" there.

No, but now you have definitively reduced the focus of the sentence to only one
of the "threes" of children.

When you read the OP you are seeing (I suggest), as I did, this formulation :-

One [in three children] are at risk of obesity in this country ... which if it
were the only interpretation, would be wrong, but, on reflection, I think it is
at least equaly valid to consider it to be :-

[One in three] children are at risk of obesity in this country.

Where "one in three" is a statement of proportion like "a third", as has been
suggested elsewhere.

I'm not really trying to convince you, I'm merely saying that I would hesitate
to be as dogmatic as you have chosen to be on this issue.
--
Jim
"a single species has come to dominate ...
reproducing at bacterial levels, almost as an
infectious plague envelops its host"
http://tinyurl.com/c88xs
.