Singulier / pluriel

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Singulier / pluriel
Message de gerondif posté le 16-02-2023 à 23:25:06 (S | E | F)
Bonjour.
Je m'interroge sur cette phrase tirée de "Alchemist"de Peter James ( 1996)
" One in six women in the world suffer from infertility problems." J'aurais mis suffers. C'est différent de : One sixth of all the women in the world suffer from..."

Merci d'avance pour toute réponse.

Réponse : Singulier / pluriel de jonquille, postée le 17-02-2023 à 03:46:35 (S | E)
Bonjour gerondif,

Je vous écris en anglais, c'est plus simple (pour moi) pour la discussion.

" One in six women in the world suffer from infertility problems." J'aurais mis suffers. (Oui, one woman suffers out of 6. C'est logique, mais la langue anglaise n'est pas toujours logique !)

This is a frequent discussion I've heard/had among students and colleagues. Logically, you would think that you are referring to the "one" woman, thus singular verb form. But English, in its infinite "wisdom" seems to use a verb conjugation that applies to the subject closest to it (though not always!).

I found this site recently...the chart at the end is rather interesting:
Lien internet

How many women (plural noun) suffer from infertility problems? = One in six of them suffer...

Example from the link:
About 2% of the population (singular noun) has autism.
How much of the population has autism? Two percent.
About 2% of people (plural noun) have autism.
How many people have autism? Two percent of them.

I'm not sure if this is enlightening or more confusing!

jonquille

Réponse : Singulier / pluriel de gerondif, postée le 17-02-2023 à 09:24:12 (S | E)
Thank you, Jonquille!

Réponse : Singulier / pluriel de traviskidd, postée le 19-02-2023 à 19:20:40 (S | E)
Hello.

For me, "one in six" is synonymous with "one sixth", that is to say, it doesn't really refer to the "one" any more than in "one sixth". (Although I could accept "one in six suffers" but not "one-sixth suffers".)

To jonquille, who wrote "English, in it's infinite wisdom":
it's = "it is" or "it has"
its = possessive form of "it"

See you.

Réponse : Singulier / pluriel de jonquille, postée le 20-02-2023 à 07:35:42 (S | E)
Hi traviskidd,
Thanks for catching my typo! I'm forever correcting others for the same mistake, and here I did it myself! I have corrected it.

jonquille

Réponse : Singulier / pluriel de traviskidd, postée le 20-02-2023 à 16:47:45 (S | E)
Hi jonquille.

You're welcome. However, a "typo" is a typographical error, where the fingers fail to press the intended keys. A superfluous apostrophe is simply a mistake (No worries; it happens to the best of us.)

See you.

Réponse : Singulier / pluriel de ninja-gamer1, postée le 21-02-2023 à 12:41:49 (S | E)
Hello.

For me, "one in six" is synonymous with "one sixth", that is to say, it doesn't really refer to the "one" any more than in "one sixth". (Although I could accept "one in six suffers" but not "one-sixth suffers".)

See you.

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Modifié par lucile83 le 23-02-2023 09:05
Merci de ne pas répéter ce qui a déjà été dit. (effacé)

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