Do vs does

meisenimverbis

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The majority of them do or the majority of them does? In my language it keeps singular to agree with majority, but I'm not sure this happens in English. :confused:
 

Pacifica

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I would say "do"... Maybe "does" is possible as well but I'm not sure. It's arguably more logical, but "do" feels more natural to me.
 

Issacus Divus

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I'm a native, and I've never said "the majority of them does".
 
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My native language uses singular as well, but my English language teachers made a big deal out of that ... it's a bit of constructio ad sensum.
 

meisenimverbis

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It sounded weird all right. I can trust my instincts in English, in a way. :think:

(That's what I'm talking about in what concerns Latin in the other thread: I don't feel like I have instincts... I only have doubts.) (Or on the other thread may sound better indeed... :crazy: )
 

meisenimverbis

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To a perfect crime in renaming this thread you would need first letter capitalized and a dot after the vs: "Do vs. does". ;):D
 

meisenimverbis

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cinefactus

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To a perfect crime in renaming this thread you would need first letter capitalized and a dot after the vs: "Do vs. does". ;):D
The terms of service of this forum are that you use a specific rather than vague thread title
 

meisenimverbis

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The terms of service of this forum are that you use a specific rather than vague thread title

That's absolutely acceptable. The lack of the capital letter in the beginning (and the dot, before I know that it isn't used) is that doesn't fit to a thread by me. But then, the title was altered, so, no problem too. ;)
 

meisenimverbis

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Why! thank you... :hat:
 

Issacus Divus

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I love how all the emojis are synced. :hat:
 

meisenimverbis

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And now it's a perfect crime. :cool:


The terms of service of this forum are that you use a specific rather than vague thread title
My thought of the vague thread title, Cinefactus, was to be able to use the same thread for any basic (or silly) grammar question I came up with. I believe in this case I should open a new thread for each specific doubt each time they appear then. :think:
 

Glabrigausapes

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I generally use the singular in constructions such as these if I'm being careful. Some sound considerably worse than others.

A pack of dogs runs through the forest.
A herd of cattle stands in the field.

The vast majority of voters seem(s) to agree with Trump.
This group of idiots just do(es) whatever it(they) want(s).

I think the trouble is twofold:
First, you already have the phrase 'kind of' (as in 'type of') and also 'sort of', both of which reduce to /kinda/ and /sorta/, being conflated with 'kind of/sort of' as in 'to a certain (minimal) degree'. As a result, you hear things like: 'I think these kinda things are best left to officials.' where the correct English is, of course, 'I think these kinds of things are...'

Second, because the endings are both the same, it just sounds dumb. It sounds like the plurality of the partitive noun has somehow oozed into the following verb.
 

meisenimverbis

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Another one: people who do or people who does?
 
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