Emma Anderson of Yardley, Pa., writes to tell me she's annoyed by sentences such as "He lived there the majority of his life." But she's not quite sure just why this annoys her.

Here's why: "Majority" is usually applied to units that are easily countable — votes, people, houses, widgets. It's generally not used with big-picture nouns — life, love and liberty. With such nouns, it's simpler and easier to use "most" — "most of his life, . . . of her love, . . . of the liberty."

When tempted to say or write phrases such as "the majority of the book," "the majority of his attention" and "the majority of her time," just think how silly it would sound to substitute "minority" for "majority: "the minority of the book," "the minority of his attention" or "the minority of his time."

At the risk of devoting the majority of this column . . . er, most of this column to "majority," two other points about "majority" are worth noting. That's right, folks: majority rules!

"Majority" can take a singular or plural verb, depending on the context. When "majority" stands alone as the subject, it usually takes a singular verb: "the majority has spoken"; "a silent majority has emerged"; "the majority is in control."

But when "majority" is followed by "of" and a plural noun, it almost always takes a plural verb: "the majority of voters believe"; "the majority of the emails were supportive"; "the majority of gerbils prefer the larger tunnel." In most of these cases, you can simply trust your ear.

With the presidential election coming up, it's also worth sending you back, however briefly, to college (actually the electoral college) for a brush up on the simple but often overlooked distinction between "majority" and "plurality."

"Majority" refers to more than half of the total votes in an election, while "plurality" refers to a number of votes that is less than half the total votes yet greater than the number for any other candidate.

To be elected president, a candidate must win a majority of votes in the electoral college (270), but sometimes the winning candidate garners only a plurality of the popular vote. This happened in 1992, for instance, when Bill Clinton defeated George H. W. Bush and H. Ross Perot.

Now that I've devoted the vast majority of these sentences — heck, ALL of these sentences — to "majority," here's one last "majority" opinion: Avoid the cliché "vast majority."

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 5777 W. Century Blvd., Suite 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045. To find out more about Rob Kyff and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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