When grading TOEFL essays, I often see mistakes when students use “one of the.”
Remember that “one of the” should be followed by a plural noun.
Here’s an error I spotted in an essay today:
“Following my graduation, I got a job at one of the largest law firm in New York.”
That’s wrong because of the singular “law firm.” The correct version is:
“Following my graduation, I got a job at one of the largest law firms in New York.”
Note the plural “law firms.”
Here’s another incorrect sentence:
“Only one of the student submitted his essay before the deadline.”
That’s incorrect because of the singular “student.” The correct version uses the plural form:
“Only one of the students submitted his essay before the deadline.”
Obviously this is tricky because “one of” makes us think about using a singular noun!
Also tricky is subject-verb agreement when your subject begins with “one of the…”, but that’s a topic for a different post.