Question

A number of students _____ absent today
is or are

my answer is "is" but my mam told "are " pls explain who is correct pls ​

Answer 1

Answer:

correct answer is - Are

Explanation:

because there is written 'students' which is the plural form of student. So all plural forms will take 'are'. Therefore your answer is wrong and your's teacher answer is correct.

Answer 2

A number of students are absent today.

• Here, in the given sentence, the number of students is obviously greater than one.
• It means that the word 'students' is plural and so, the auxiliary verb used will also be plural.
• We will insert the plural 'are' for the sentence to be grammatically correct.
• Using 'is' would be wrong in the given context and so, 'A number of students are absent today.' is correct.