"Kind" or "Kinds"?

Question

I understand the basic singular/plural agreement when using kind/kinds:

This kind of person
  Those kinds of people

But what do you do if the subject is not the plural "those" but rather the singular "one of those"? In a sentence like this, would you use the singular "kind" because of the "one of" or the plural "kinds" because the "one of" is referring to a separate plural clause:

You're one of those spare-the-rod kind(s) of people, right?

I could always suggest a rephrase as

You're a spare-the-rod kind of person, right?

but I'd like to know how to properly work the original sentence too.

Thanks!

Dilshod · Answer

You're one of those spare-the-rod kind(s) of people, right?

In this sentence the demonstrative adjective "those" defines the noun "kind". So it affects this noun in terms of plurality. So it would be grammatically right to say:

those kinds

But to me it sounds better if I hear:

this kind of / that kind of (singular)
  instead of
  those kinds of (plural)

So to me the whole sentence would be:

You're one of that spare-the-rod kind of people, right?

where demonstrative adjective "that" and compound hyphenated adjective "spare-the-rod" both define one noun - kind. So 2 words describe 1.

that (1) spare-the-rod (2) kind

So, basically, weather to use plural or singular for "this/that/these/those" depends on the choice of "kind" or "kinds" for this is a semantically and therefore grammatically bound pair.

I would use "kind". Therefore, I would say "that/this":

You're one of that spare-the-rod kind of people, right?

"Kind" or "Kinds"?

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