grammatical number - "1 in 10 are" or "1 in 10 is"?


Take the examples:



  1. "One in ten children are dyslexic."


  2. "One in ten children is dyslexic."




  3. "One in ten children has dyslexia."



  4. "One in ten children have dyslexia."


The "one" is singular so 2 and 3 should be correct. But the "one in ten" is a fraction" so 1 and 4 should be correct. And yet I think I usually say 1 and 3. Which is/are correct?!



Answer



Both are commonly used and acceptable.


There are various common cases where a superficially singular subject can or indeed must be associated with a plural verb:



The government [are/is] considering the proposal.


A lot of these matters [have/*has] been dealt with.


The majority [are/??is] pleased with the outcome.


A half of all pensioners [are/??is] living below the poverty line.



In the case you mention, a plural verb is probably at least equally common nowadays as a singular, though historically a singular verb appears to have been more common (e.g. do some comparisons on Google NGram: the singular verb appears to have undergone a downward trend over the last couple of centuries).


You will find prescriptivists bemoaning the apparent contradiction of a singular noun accompanied by a plural verb. But there's really no God-given reason to expect the verb to agree necessarily with the head noun and actual data clearly contradicts this assumption. As is usually the case, the prescriptivists are inventing a problem because their grammatical model is inadequate.


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