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The number of guests invited to the wedding is/are one thousand.

How to decide the subject in this type of sentences?

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  • You could say "The number of applications are primarily limited by our imagination." I cannot explain when the plural should be used instead of the singular, thought.
    – apaderno
    Apr 17, 2013 at 14:44
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    Take away all the adjectives, prepositions and reduce the sentence to its bare essence: subject-verb. Then it should be clear whether the subject is singular or plural. The number is ...
    – Jim
    Apr 17, 2013 at 14:56
  • In short, "the number of guests […] is one thousand" is what normally you should write. I cannot explain if "the number of applications are […]" is a common error or something that is acceptable because a specific reason.
    – apaderno
    Apr 17, 2013 at 19:18
  • @kiamlaluno: Although there are a dozen instances of "The number of applications are limited" in Google Books, most of them are in constructions like "The cost, and the number of...". The few that aren't like that are just plain incorrect, but there are several hundred instances of "The number of applications is limited", which is what I'd have expected. Apr 17, 2013 at 21:54

1 Answer 1

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In this exact construction, the only rationale choice is singular is. As @Jim comments, just pare it down...

"The number of guests invited to the wedding is one thousand."
"Can you repeat that please?"
"The number of guests is one thousand."
"I still didn't hear you. Once again, please?"
"The number is one thousand."


Note: although "the number [of whatever]" invariably takes a singular verb form, "a number [of whatever]" normally takes the plural verb form...

A number of guests are planning to skip the actual ceremony and go straight to the reception party.

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  • I might be misreading, but I think the source of OP's confusion is: "Is number the subject of the sentence, or is guests?" I know the answer, but can't think of how to explain the rationale. /puzzles
    – WendiKidd
    Apr 17, 2013 at 16:04
  • @WendiKidd♦: I thought the best way to get that across was to follow Jim's advice and shave away the grammatically irrelevant words (which includes of guests). Apr 17, 2013 at 16:28
  • @FumbleFingers: I found one good article. Look at Rule 10 grammarbook.com/grammar/subjectVerbAgree.asp. The expression the number is followed by a singular verb.
    – Sudhir
    Apr 17, 2013 at 16:59
  • @Sudhir: As a native speaker, I wasn't immediately aware of why learners might have a problem with this usage. But your link, plus a bit more thought on my part, prompts me to extend my answer to address a number [of whatever] - which is invariably followed by a plural verb. Apr 17, 2013 at 19:39

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