"The majority are seventy years old."

Translation: Majoritatea au șaptezeci de ani.

[StuartM.]

"Majoritatea" is clearly a singular noun. Shouldn't this get the 3rd person singular verb form "are"?

[potestasity]

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/majority

[StuartM.]

Here, I am not claiming a violation of proper English. I am claiming that the Romanian ending of "majoritatea" is clearly a singular + definite article noun and the verb "a avea" should agree with it. So it should be "Majoritatea are saptezeci ani." I noticed somewhere else in the same module "majoritatea" does have a singular, third person verb used with it. I am not trying to be the Grammar Police here. I'm just trying to be helpful.

[potestasity]

Sorry, I misread your comment. The thing is that "majoritatea" behaves the same as in English, so it can be followed by a verb conjugated either in singular or plural, depending on whether you want to emphasis the individuals or the group. This article in Romanian explains it better (second paragraph).

[StuartM.]

Thanks for the very interesting article and website dexonline.ro! You are right, it does appear "majoritatea" can use a plural verb form just like in English. The article makes the distinction between a "compact group" ("The parliamentary majority opposes the law") and a "number within a group" ("A majority of the boys are bad").

[Inga89619]

Why did duo not mark "majoritatea are..." as right then? I'll report it.

[Miepsa1]

Shouldn't it be: The majority IS seventy years old.(?)

[Miepsa1]

The comments are clear!

[j.p.haaleb]

why is "the majority"in english a singular and in Romanian a plural form?/

[ngel41311]

As Romance language I suspect that, in Romanian, the correct concordance is with the verb in singular. Could some native Romanian speaker clarify this?

[Stewart288923]

Yes . Majority is a singular noun in English at least.