grammaticality - Is "a total of 10 payments" singular or plural?



A total of 10 payments were made.



OR



A total of 10 payments was made.



Which is correct? Or can both be correct?



Answer



Since "payment" is countable, I would go with "were" to reinforce the notion that there was more than one payment.


This thread contains more examples:



Number, majority and total are singular if preceded by the, but plural if preceded by a.



  • A number of people believe he is innocent.

  • A majority of residents want the town to reduce the recreation fee.

  • A total of 15 people were arrested for burglary last month in our town.



That being said, this is not a strict rule, and if the focus is specifically on the fact of something being a total, you would use "was".




  • "A total of five cars is impossible: you must have miscounted."



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