Grammar question

[AFB]

Which one is correct

a) Over half of the fortune 500 rely on us.

b) Over half of the fortune 500 relies on us

 

[Descartes]

It's relies, not relys.

Oh, and a.

 

[Tylanner]

im tinkin b

 

[AFB]

Originally posted by: Descartes
It's relies, not relys.

Oh, and a.

lol, corrected

 

[TheChort]

if you are able to clump the 'over half of fortune500 companies' into a single group, then it becomes relies
but the way you have it here, it sounds like (a) to me

 

[thirdlegstump]

de anser is A iiiight.

 

[Rebasxer]

Replace fortune 500 with the word family, even though a family has more than one person in it, it's a collective noun, so it's singular, making it B

 

[Descartes]

nm

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: Rebasxer
Replace fortune 500 with the word family, even though a family has more than one person in it, it's a collective noun, so it's singular, making it B

He asked which one was correct, not which one could be correct if you modified it.

 

[Koenigsegg]

Capitalize Fortune.

 

[EyeMNathan]

Actually the "rely" refers back to "half" not "Fortune 500". Half is still a singular noun so, yes, "rely".

 

[91TTZ]

You can use either.

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/english/data/d0082174.html

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: EyeMNathan
Actually the "rely" refers back to "half" not "Fortune 500". Half is still a singular noun so, yes, "rely".

You're wrong. If it's referring to a singular noun, then you'd use "relies", not "rely".

 

[TheChort]

Originally posted by: EyeMNathan
Actually the "rely" refers back to "half" not "Fortune 500". Half is still a singular noun so, yes, "rely".

if half is singular, then you mean "relies" right?

 

[dbk]

B

 

[91TTZ]

Collective nouns can be tricky because what is implied by it matters. If that collective is acting as one unit, then it is referred to as being one. If it is acting as individual members inside that unit, it is referred to as being many.

I see people who try to be proper get this wrong all the time. I read Slashdot often, and many people (from America) on there seem to make this mistake. When referring to a company name, they seem to like to say "are", when they should say "is". Example- "AMD is releasing a new chip" is the correct way to say it. They like to say, "AMD are releasing a new chip". This is wrong.