2.259 USAGE NOTE

If you are using 'half' in front of a pronoun, you still use 'of' after the 'half'.

• Nearly half of it comes from the Middle East.
• More than half of them have gone home.
• Half of us have lost our jobs.

Note that when the fraction 'a half' is used with 'of' as a quantifier you usually write or say it as 'half' without a determiner. 'A half' and 'one half' are rarely used.

• They lost half of their pay.
• Half of the people went to private schools.