| Subject-Verb Agreement |
| Either and Neither |
| Remember! The subject of a sentence is almost never part of a prepositional phrase. |
| Either the left or right road leads to her aunt's house. |
| What Person? When deciding what 'person' a subject is in, ask yourself what pronoun could be used in place of the noun or nouns. Singular 1st person - I 2nd person - you 3rd person - he, it or she Plural 1st person - we 2nd -person - you 3rd person - they |
| Neither of the woman's brothers live at the end of either road. |
| Remember! Either and neither take singular verbs if both subjects are singular. |
| Either or Neither with Plural Nouns If either or neither appear in a sentence with one or more plural nouns, the noun closest to the verb decides if the verb is singular or plural. |
| Neither the woman nor her brothers have visited their aunt in years. |
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| Either and neither are adjectives that sometimes take the place as subject of the nouns they modify (tell more about). Either means 'this one or that one', 'these ones or those ones', 'this one or those ones' or 'these ones or that one'; neither means 'not this one and not that one', 'not these ones and not those ones', 'not this one and not those ones' or 'not these ones and not that one'. Because these words indicate a choice of one person or thing if the nouns are singular, they take a third-person singular verb. Take a look at the picture to the right. Either road goes to the mountains. Even though the sentence tells about two roads, the subject is a singular noun - road. The same is true in this sentence beginning with neither. Neither road goes to the ocean. If this seems odd to you, think about the definitions of either and neither: 'this or that', and 'not this and not that'. Thus, the sentence above could be reworded like this - This road doesn't go to the ocean, and that road doesn't go to the ocean. Perhaps in this example it easier to see that in the sentence each road is being considered separately. Using the word neither allows us to shorten the sentence and avoid repetition, but it doesn't change the meaning of the sentence; only one road is being thought of at a time. Prepositional phrases frequently follow the words either and neither. Which form of the verb to lead would you use in these sentences? Either of these roads ______ to the mountains. Neither of these roads ______ to the ocean. Which forms of the verb did you choose? If you chose the third-person singular leads for each sentence, you got it right! The either/neither situation becomes even more interesting when plural nouns are used in the subject. The rule in this situation: the noun closest to the verb decides which person of the verb to use. Consider these examples: Neither the roads in the picture nor the road not shown leads to the ocean. Neither the road not shown nor the roads in the picture lead to the ocean. In the first sentence, the noun closest to the verb is singular, so the third-person singular verb, leads, is used. In the second sentence, the noun closest to the verb is plural; therefore, the third-person plural verb, lead, is used. Let's try two more sentence. You can decide which form of the verb to want to use. Neither the woman nor her friends ______ to go to the mountains. Neither her friends nor the woman ______ to go to the mountains. |
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