Writing for Business - A Whatis.com Blog » collective nouns http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/writing-for-business Is your grammar as good as your code? Thu, 23 May 2013 20:41:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Collective nouns and subject – verb agreement http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/writing-for-business/collective-nouns-and-subject-verb-agreement/ http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/writing-for-business/collective-nouns-and-subject-verb-agreement/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:23:04 +0000 Ivy Wigmore http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/writing-for-business/?p=718 Which is correct?
As the prevalence of VoIP increases, so ____ the number of attempts to exploit it.
a. do
b. does

Answer: b

Explanation:
The subject in this clause is number. Number is a collective noun. Here’s a handy hint: If number is preceded by a, it’s treated as plural and if it’s preceded by the, it’s treated as singular.

It’s preceded by the here so we need does for agreement: The number does increase. (You wouldn’t say “The number do increase,” right?)

See more in this dictionary.com entry.

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