Willie  +  288698 Thu, 02 Nov 06 04:42 PM Hi everone, I came accross this sentence on Newsweek " Neither do a growing number of his countrymen; poll shows strong support....". I would say the subject is a growing number, so it should be Neither does, not do. am I wrong? Thanks for the help Willie Willie Joined on Thu, Nov 2 2006 New Member 02

	Tam Sadek  +  288701 Thu, 02 Nov 06 04:49 PM Be careful with the subject, which is "his countrymen", and therefore plural. Neither do (a growing number of) his countrymen. The "a growing number of" is merely quantifying 'how many' countrymen. Hope that helps... Tam Tam Sadek Joined on Wed, Oct 4 2006 Full Member 265 The more you see, the less you know... Plurals

	CalifJim  +  288723 Thu, 02 Nov 06 06:40 PM a number of, a lot of, the rest of are all examples of "number-transparent" expressions.  When one of these is used as the subject, the verb agrees with the noun after the number-transparent expression. (A number of) them do ... (A lot of) the men go ... (The rest of) the children were ... CJ CalifJim Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004 California Veteran Member 22,399 "There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche Verbs, Nouns