Either Or Neither Nor Subject Verb Agreement

Neither the plates nor the serving bowl goes on that shelf.

Either or neither nor subject verb agreement. When the subjects connected by or or nor are of different persons the verb agrees with the noun that comes closer to it. Subjects with and or or nor as you saw in module 3 lesson 1 a sentence is like a car with a noun or pronoun as the driver the subject and a verb as the engine. Here lawyer is singular but detectives is plural. If the noun is plural choose the plural form of the verb.

In fiction use your judgment about characters using improper grammar with either or neither. Neither the dogs nor the cat is going outside. Neither and either require singular verbs even though they seem to be referring to two separate things. Subjects and verbs must agree with each other in number if the subject is singular the verb will be singular and if the subject is plural the verb will be plural.

If a sentence has two subjects connected by or nor either or or neither nor the verb must agree with the second subject the subject closer to the verb. So pair either and neither with singular verbs under the first condition and match the subject closest to the verb for the second condition. The verb in an or either or or neither nor sentence agrees with the noun or pronoun closest to it. Therefore are is correct.

The verb is singular although the plural verb can also be possible. Here the verb is agrees with the third person pronoun he either he or you are to clean up the mess. Here the verb are agrees with the second person pronoun you either you or john has to pay for the drinks. This rule can lead to bumps in the road.

But do at least recognize when the the grammar isn t standard or may be questionable. If the pairings either or or neither nor form part of the subject and at least one of the elements is plural then the verb must be plural too. If it is singular as in the sentence above choose the singular verb. Neither nor when two subjects are joined by neither nor or either or choosing the right number for the verb can be tricky for writers.

Focus your attention on the noun closest to the verb. The singular subject cat matches the singular verb is if we flip the sentence the verb will change. A tricky agreement problem. For example if i is one of two or more subjects it could lead to this odd sentence.

Subject verb agreement with neither nor. If both nouns used with neither nor are singular then we use singular verb. When a clause with neither or nor is used after a negative clause we invert the subject and the verb after neither and nor. We did n t get to see the castle nor did we see the cathedral.

Neither you nor he is responsible for this. Neither the lawyer nor the detectives are able to follow the sequence of events. When a sentence compounds a positive and a negative subject and only one is plural the verb should agree with the positive subject.