ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: was or were

Saikat — Sat, 03 May 2008 05:59:20 GMT

Thanks for the reference GG. I appreciate

Re: was or were

Marius Hancu — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:09:31 GMT

GG said:

> as in

Neither my friends nor my father is ready

although a plural is also possible.

---

Sticking to my guns. Good reference.

Re: was or were

Grammar Geek — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:06:07 GMT

http://www.bartleby.com/68/47/4047.html: Neither is paired with nor as either is with or, and in those uses as conjunctions they pose usage problems of agreement. Usually they will take a singular verb if both parts of the structure are singular, as in Neither he nor his friend is ready, and if the first element is plural but the second element remains singular, the structure may still take a singular verb, as in Neither my friends nor my father is ready, although a plural is also possible. But if the second element is plural, the verb will almost always be plural: Neither my father nor his friends are ready. Agreement between neither/nor and the verb is frequently a matter of notional agreement: hence Standard English in all but its most Formal and Oratorical situations will usually accept either number of the verb.

So "mqnager" come second, it's closer to the verb, and therefore the verb is singular -- "although a plural is also possible" says barlteby.

Re: was or were

Marius Hancu — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:56:55 GMT

Click to page 1, top

Re: was or were

Saikat — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:38:11 GMT

The link does not show any "Neither <plural> nor <singular> <plural verb> ... " kind of sentence. Can you please refer to a specific page?

Re: was or were

Takoyaki-English — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:06:29 GMT

Hello.

1) Neither the employees nor the manager were happy with the new policies.
2) Neither the employees nor the manager was happy with the new policies.
I think that the second one sounds better in formal writing.

The Oxford Dictionary says:
When neither... nor... or either... or... are used with two singular nouns, the verb can be singular or plural. A plural verb is more informal.

Re: was or were

Marius Hancu — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:39:21 GMT

Neither the employees nor the manager were happy with the new policies.

http://books.google.com/books?q=%22Neither+the+employees+nor+the+*+were%22&lr=&sa=N&start=10

was or were

Saikat — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:36:34 GMT

Neither employees nor the manager was/were happy with the new policies.

Thanks in advance.