Complex quantifiers (la plupart de, la majorité de, bon nombre de, quantité de)

La plupart des Français partent en vacances en août.Most French people go on holiday in August.

You already know beaucoup de, un peu de and the other everyday quantity words, which take a bare de for a general amount. This article covers a set of more formal quantifiers — la plupart de, la majorité de, bon nombre de, (une) quantité de — that mostly work a little differently, plus the agreement rule that trips people up: the verb agrees with the noun after de, not with the quantifier itself.

Quick shortcut: la plupart de and la majorité de generally keep whatever determiner the noun after them would already have (des étudiants, du temps, de la population), unlike beaucoup de's bare de. La plupart de + a plural noun takes an almost-always-plural verb; la majorité de and quantité de allow either a singular verb (agreeing with the quantifier itself) or a plural one (agreeing with the plural noun), depending on what's being emphasized.

La plupart de / la majorité de: which determiner, which verb

La plupart de and la majorité de generally keep the determiner the following noun would already have on its own, rather than the bare de of beaucoup de — even talking in general terms, not just about an already-identified group:

• La plupart des étudiants réussissent l'examen. (Most students pass the exam.)
• La majorité de la population soutient cette loi. (The majority of the population supports this law.)

With la plupart de + a plural noun, the verb is almost always plural — la plupart des gens pensent, not pense; singular agreement here is archaic and rarely used. With la majorité de (and (une) quantité de, below) + a plural noun, both a singular and a plural verb are correct: singular treats la majorité/la quantité itself as the grammatical subject (the traditional, still very common choice); plural agrees with the underlying plural noun instead, foregrounding the individual members (accord logique, increasingly common, especially in journalistic style):

• La majorité des voitures est rouge. or La majorité des voitures sont rouges. — both correct, a genuine either/or, not a mistake to fix.

La plupart d'entre nous/vous/eux

To refer back to a group of people already mentioned, la plupart combines with entre and a disjunctive pronoun:

• La plupart d'entre nous avons voté pour ce projet. (Most of us voted for this project.)
• La plupart d'entre eux ne le savaient pas. (Most of them didn't know.)

With entre nous/entre vous, the verb can agree either with the implied nous/vous (avons, avez) or, less commonly, stay in the third person (a voté) — the first-/second-person agreement is the more standard, more frequent choice.

Bon nombre de, un grand nombre de: always plural

Bon nombre de, un grand nombre de and un certain nombre de always refer to countable things, so the noun — and the verb — are always plural. Unlike la plupart, these can take a bare de for a general amount, closer to beaucoup de:

• Bon nombre de visiteurs ne parlent pas la langue locale. (A good number of visitors don't speak the local language.)
• Un certain nombre de questions restent sans réponse. (A certain number of questions remain unanswered.)

(Une) quantité de: singular with a mass noun, either with a plural one

With a mass noun, (une) quantité de is simply singular, like any other noun phrase built around quantité:

• Une quantité de patience est nécessaire. (A quantity of patience is necessary.) — singular, mass noun, no real choice here.

With a plural, countable noun, the same either/or as la majorité applies — singular agreeing with quantité itself, or plural agreeing with the noun:

• Une grande quantité de documents a été détruite. or Une grande quantité de documents ont été détruits. — both correct.

The same combination rules as une (bonne) partie de

Like une (bonne) partie de, these quantifiers generally keep the determiner the complement would need on its own — des, du, de la — rather than the bare de of beaucoup de, whether the noun is fully generic (la plupart des gens, people in general) or refers to a specific, already-identified group. A possessive attaches to de the ordinary way too: la plupart de mes collègues.

Common mistakes

• ❌ La plupart de gens pensent... → ✅ La plupart des gens pensent... (la plupart de keeps the noun's own determiner — des, not a bare de, even for a general statement)
• ❌ La plupart des gens pense que... → ✅ La plupart des gens pensent que... (with la plupart de + a plural noun, the plural verb is almost always the only real option — singular agreement here is archaic)
• ❌ La plupart des eux. → ✅ La plupart d'entre eux. (referring back to a group of people already named needs entre + a disjunctive pronoun — des eux isn't a construction)

Quick check

Key takeaways

• La plupart de and la majorité de generally keep the following noun's own determiner (des, du, de la), unlike beaucoup de's bare de — even for a general statement.
• La plupart de + a plural noun takes an almost-always-plural verb. La majorité de and (une) quantité de + a plural noun genuinely allow either a singular verb (agreeing with la majorité/la quantité itself) or a plural one (agreeing with the noun) — both are correct, not a mistake to fix.
• La plupart d'entre nous/vous/eux refers back to a group already named; with entre nous/entre vous, first-/second-person verb agreement (avons, avez) is the standard choice.
• Bon nombre de, un grand nombre de and un certain nombre de are always plural and, like beaucoup de, can take a bare de for a general amount.
• With (une) quantité de, the verb is singular with a mass noun; with a plural countable noun, both a singular (agreeing with quantité) and a plural (agreeing with the noun) are possible.