One Of The… Singular or Plural?

Vocabulary / By

We usually use a plural noun after “one of the” because we are talking about a group. The verb that follows can be singular or plural depending on the subject of the sentence.

One Of The

“One of the” is when there is one item among a group.

He is one of the best in the world. 

We use “one of the” when we want to mention one item among the group. 

He is one of the players who was sent off. 

The coin was one of the first that was minted in Europe. 

We use “one of the” with the following structure:

Subject(verb) “One of the” + plural noun + “that/which/who” + singular/plural verb 

The second verb is singular or plural depending on the subject of the sentence. In the examples above, “he” and “the coin” are the subjects of the sentence so the verb “was” is singular. 

One Of The – Singular or Plural

“One of the” should conjugate with a plural noun because we are talking about one member of a group. 

He is one of the students who aced the exam.

He is one of the best singers in the class. 

Read about one of the bests vs one of the best here  

One Of

You can also use “one of” when you want to say that one item is one of a group.

She is one of six children.

She is one of my friends who does judo.

In the second example above the subject of the sentence is “she” so we need to conjugate “does” with “she”. 

Conor
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