"More than one in five are without water."

Translation: Più di uno su cinque è senz'acqua.

[CTrinity]

why is it 'e senz'acqua' rather than 'sono senz'acqua'? Particularly since the English translation says 'are', not 'is'?

[ziggKogg]

Anyone care to clarify?

[magofa]

What is "su" here?

[rljones]

I am very curious about the use of a singular verb "è" with "più di uno." That construction should scream PLURAL, even to an Italian, I would think.

[sandrabruck]

I try to respond.

In Italian the expression "più di uno è" è giusto.

I think that you have to apply not a logical approach, but a grammatical one.
"più di" seen from its function in a sentence can be an adjective or adverb.

Normally if you have to determinate the form of a verb, you only have a look at the subject and not at the adjectives or adverbs. So if "uno" is the subject you have to chose "è".

Greetings Sandra

[liamvictor]

I put "Più di uno in cinque sono senza acqua" which was marked wrong for "in" and "sono".

I presume Italians would literally say "more than one on five is without water"?

[lschwaegle]

Nobody has really clarified the use of "su" in the sentence

[rljones]

It means "out of" (or "in," which is closer to the English usage), as in "One out of five of us got it right." Just another Itialianism. See 12Aurora34's comment above.

[deactivated user]

In English this is correct grammer: More than one in five are without water. It would be incorrect if it read: More than one in five is without water. In Italian, I wrote: Piu di uno su cinque sono senza acqua--meaning: More than one in five are (sono) without water. I do not know why the Italian language would use "is" (e) than sono (are). Please clarify. Thank you.