Most is vs most are - English Language Usage Stack Exchange Most is what is called a determiner A determiner is "a word, such as a number, article, personal pronoun, that determines (limits) the meaning of a noun phrase " Some determiners can only be used with either a countable noun or an uncountable noun, while others, like most, can be used with both countable and uncountable nouns Uncountable nouns usually take a singular verb So, in your
meaning - Is most equivalent to a majority of? - English Language . . . Here "most" means "a plurality" Most dentists recommend Colgate toothpaste Here it is ambiguous about whether there is a bare majority or a comfortable majority From the 2nd Language Log link: I searched on Google for the pattern "most * percent", and picked out of the first 150 hits all the examples like these:
Most of which or most of whom or most of who? Since "most of _____" is a prepositional phrase, the correct usage would be "most of whom " The phrase "most of who" should probably never be used Another way to think about the difference between the subjective objective pronouns is to revise the sentence to include a personal pronoun and see which form (he him or she her or they them) fit
Most vs. most of - English Language Usage Stack Exchange During most of history, humans were too busy to think about thought Why is "most of history" correct in the above sentence? I could understand the difference between "Most of the people" and "Most
What does the word most mean? - English Language Usage Stack Exchange Most is defined by the attributes you apply to it "Most of your time" would imply more than half, "the most time" implies more than the rest in your stated set Your time implies your total time, where the most time implies more than the rest I think "most" leads to a great deal of ambiguity
verb agreement - Most of what and is or are - English Language . . . In your example, books ARE what you have read most, so I would agree that in diagrammatic reasoning most of what you've read ARE books Of all of the various materials I've read, most ARE books Therefore, because MOST refers to books, and BOOKS is a plural noun, I'm sorry to say that your friend is correct
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