Percent versus Percentage - A question

[Lunatic]

Which one is singular and which one is plural?

I recently came across a line that said something similar to:

"What percentage of your chickens is new this year"

Which apparently is grammatically correct (percentage and is go together, not chickens and is).

I'm not disputing this, I'm just struggling to understand it. Is there an easy explanation of why percent or percentage are only/both singular and/or plural?

m-w.com isn't very helpful other than the plural of percent is percent or percents. Percentage doesn't have an indicator of whether it is singular or plural.

Any help on this one is appriciated (and if there is a more broad rule that applies to more than just percent/percentage please feel free to expand to the encompassing rule).

Thanks!

***************************************
Have a problem with my spelling or grammar? Please refer all complaints to my English teacher:
Ralphy "Me fail English? That's unpossible." Wiggum

 

[CajunCenturion]

Yes, 'percentage' goes with 'is' because 'percentage' is the subject of the sentence and 'is' is the verb.
What percentage is new?

Why is percentage singular? Percentage is singular because it is a single number. The value of number is irrelavent. Percentage is singular because it is one specific value.

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[KenCunningham]

What's a 'new chicken'? A chick?

I don't mind people who aren't what they seem. I just wish they'd make their mind up.

 

[Ladyazh]

What percentage of your chickens is new this year"
This sentence sounds bothersome to me in more then one way.
If part is out it goes
"What percentage XXX is new this year" does it make sense?
"Percentage is new".......hmmm........somehow it doesn't sing to me and why is it? Is it built in a wrong way?

 

[CajunCenturion]

==> "What percentage XXX is new this year" does it make sense?
It does to me. Some things are simply not pleasing to the ear, but I don't see anything wrong with the construction.

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[AnotherHiggins]

Ladyazh,

FYI: I think you meant "parse" instead of "part" when you typed "If [you] part is out it goes".

"Percentage is" sounds fine to me. It is true that hearing "is" following a plural (such as "chickens") sounds a bit odd. But, as has been explained, "is" is attached to "percentage", not "chickens", and "percentage" is singular.

[tt]_____
[blue]-John[/blue][/tt]
[tab][red]The plural of anecdote is not data[/red]

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[Ladyazh]

So I can not trust my ear anymore? Well...at least you think it is unpleasant as I do.

 

[CajunCenturion]

I think you should continue to use your ears, but not just your ears. Ears can be a big help, but just because something doesn't sound right, doesn't mean it's wrong. By the same token, just because it sounds right, doesn't mean it is right.

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[AnotherHiggins]

I was born in the US and raised by well-spoken, well-educated, native-English-speaking parents. I still can't rely solely on my ears.

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[tab][red]The plural of anecdote is not data[/red]

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[ESquared]

Joe and Mary are going. Mary are going?

Kicking chickens is wrong.
Kicking chickens are tearing down my henhouse!

As we parse a sentence, one word at a time, we assign the most likely meaning and part of speech to each word. When a word arrives which does not fit the structure we have so far tentatively assigned, we are forced to go back earlier in the sentence and assign new meanings and parts of speech. The farther the distance between the disambiguating word and the first word we must reassign, the more difficult it is to parse the sentence. Parsing can also be more difficult because of uncommon word meanings or word patterns.

There's an old thread about Garden Path Sentences which you may enjoy reviewing. I got the above information from research I did for that topic.


PS the tek-tips forum search function doesn't seem to work very well. Google found that thread immediately, and I couldn't make tek-tips spit it out in three tries.