Dear teacher,
Studies have found that each season as many as one high school football player in five suffers concussions, a violent jarring of the brain against the unyielding skull.
Q : I believe the function of "as many as" is an adjective modifying "one, for emphasizing it. If it does not, it is not natural that "suffers" is placed before a plural "many".
What do you think?
As...as
Moderator: Alan
- Alan
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'As many as' serves as a kind of phrasal modifier to 'one (in five)' . It serves to emphasize that 'one' in this context is to be regarded as a high number, since it actually represents 20% of the total.
The sentence subject is thus 'one high school football player', not 'many', hence the singular verb.
The sentence subject is thus 'one high school football player', not 'many', hence the singular verb.