Singular or Plural after plural subjects [duplicate]

Solution 1:

You are correct: singular is fine.

Otherwise one is thinking about this wrong. Let’s say that you write:

1. Nowadays most people have a handheld computer, one that sometimes even makes phone calls if they’re lucky.

In (1), you would not think that meant that they all share one single unit held in common by the entire lot of them. Otherwise they couldn’t call each other.

Or here:

2. Most people use the right hand to write with.

In (2), that hand would sure get a lot of use if there were only one hand to go around.

3. Everybody eventually calls somebody.

In (3), you would not imagine that that one same somebody gets a whole lot of calls from everybody.

Therefore it is perfectly common to say things like most people have a street address or everyone has a mother.

If you absolutely have to do so for clarity's sake, you can sometimes use apiece or each to reinforce the distributive nature.

4. All people have two parents apiece, and most also have four grandparents each, but if you go back far enough, the numbers are guaranteed to stop adding up.