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Ein Drittel mag den Snack, der sehr salzig ist.

Ein Drittel mag den Snack, der sehr salzig ist.
A third like the snack, which is very salty.
From Lesson 211:Fractions (die Hälfte, ein Drittel)·German

Questions & Answers about Ein Drittel mag den Snack, der sehr salzig ist.

Why is Drittel capitalized here?
Fractional numbers are formed by adding -tel or -stel to a number. When used independently to mean a fraction of something, they become neuter nouns, like das Drittel (the third) or ein Viertel (a quarter). Since all nouns in German are capitalized, Drittel gets a capital letter here.
If a third of people means many people, why is the verb singular (mag)?
In English, we often use a plural verb with fractions (a third like the snack) because we are thinking of multiple people. In German, grammar rules are stricter: ein Drittel is grammatically a singular noun, so the verb must match it in the singular form (mag instead of the plural mögen).
Why does the sentence use der when referring back to den Snack?
A relative pronoun matches the gender of the noun it replaces, but its case depends on its job in its own clause. In the first half, den Snack is the direct object (accusative). However, in the relative clause (der sehr salzig ist), it acts as the subject doing the being (nominative), so the pronoun must be der.
Why is the verb ist pushed all the way to the end of the sentence?
The phrase der sehr salzig ist is a relative clause giving us extra information about the snack. Relative clauses are a type of subordinate clause, and in German, subordinate clauses always kick the conjugated verb (in this case, ist) to the very end.

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