Native English speakers~ I need your help.?

Question

1. One of the fastest growing groups of drug users are those who inject drugs.

2. One of the fastest growing groups of drug users is those who inject drugs

I heard that the second sentence is not correct.. but I still don't know why. Please~ teach me~

Answer 1

The words 'are and 'is are relevant to singular or plural.

i.e 'drug user'= singular  and 'drug users' =plural.

So, sentence #1 is correct.

Answer 2

well, at first i thought sentence 2 was right(because of appositives).

i thought the "of the" phrases canceled out "fastest growing groups" and "of drug users." even if (using appositive rules) they do cancel out, the end of the sentence uses plural verbs, and all the nouns are plural, so sentence 1 looks right

Answer 3

Number 1 is correct because 'one of' states that it is part of a group. "One of the kittens", one cannot say "one of the kitten"... It sounds awkward.

Also "those" is still influenced by the subject of the sentence "one" that explains why it's "those" and not 'these"

Answer 4

"Drug users" is plural.  So it requires a plural verb.  In this case "are."  "Is" is singular.