My bank account now has 500 dollars, 50% of which was (or were) earned from my office job. Should I "was" or "were" in the clause?

Question

The word "dollar" is a countable noun, so I shall use the plural form of the linking verb in the clause?

The answers to these questions might help: Are amounts of money singular or plural? “Rupees is/are interchangeable” Why “was” not “were” in “Nearly £20 was taken from my bank account” — ColleenV, Mar 04 '18 at 01:19

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 04 '18 at 01:24

While individual dollars are countable, you're describing a collective amount rather than a collection of individual bills. Amounts are generally uncountable, but the convention seems to vary depending on how you phrase the sentence:

A large amount of money was stolen from the bank.

Several million dollars was/were stolen from the bank.

Which you use for percentages depends on the actual collective noun. As with the above example, with money it seems like you can use either.

50% of the five million dollars in donations has/have been earmarked for disaster relief.

I'm personally inclined to use the singular, since that emphasizes the total amount rather than the number of bills, but that's just opinion.

My bank account now has 500 dollars, 50% of which was (or were) earned from my office job. Should I "was" or "were" in the clause?

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