One of the persons who WAS? or ONe of the persons who WERE?
2007-11-16 06:27:18 · 10 answers · asked by Missy M 2 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
Thanks..............
2007-11-16 06:27:40 · update #1
And if you could tell me why as well because at work there is this big debate as to which one is correct....
2007-11-16 06:40:11 · update #2
It heavily depends on the rest of the sentence.
Compare the following:
One of the people who were there was waving at me.
(same as "Of the people who were there, one was waving at me.")
One of the people was waving at me.
This is really hard to explain, but it still boils down to the subject agreeing with the verb.
2007-11-16 06:48:55 · answer #1 · answered by k8kay 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
In this context, WAS. The sentence's subject (one) and verb (was) must agree. The "of the persons" is a prepositional phrase that should be ignored when choosing a verb.
You might be confusing the subjunctive, which changes everything. Put the word "if" in front of some sentences, then it goes like this: "If I were you..." But this is a rare exception to the subject-verb agreement rule.
2007-11-16 15:57:02 · answer #2 · answered by TryItOnce 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
One of the persons who were , is correct
2007-11-16 14:32:04 · answer #3 · answered by Form F 4 · 1⤊ 2⤋
"was" - because the subject to which the verb refers is "one", which is singular, hence "was". "Persons", the erroneous determinant of plural verb ("were"), is in fact the subject of the adjectival phrase "of the persons" which modifies the subject "One".
2007-11-16 17:33:37 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
one of the persons who were...
because "were" refers to "the persons" - plural...
if you finished the sentence and said something about the "one" then that portion would be singular...
One of the persons who were in the line-up broke down and cried...
2007-11-16 14:41:07 · answer #5 · answered by crkrjx 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
one of the persons that were makes more sense because its talking about one person where the other one is talking about more than one person and says they are.
2007-11-16 14:35:54 · answer #6 · answered by Club Penguin Lover 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
One is the subject so the verb is WAS
2007-11-16 15:20:51 · answer #7 · answered by Dave aka Spider Monkey 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Neither. It should read;
One of the PEOPLE who WERE.
2007-11-16 14:34:20 · answer #8 · answered by I don't know 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Singular = was.
2007-11-16 14:35:01 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
was.
2007-11-16 14:36:46 · answer #10 · answered by Rick H 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋