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Neither ... nor ... know where (usage of plural verb know)



 
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Split infinitive | Ergative verbs
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Neither ... nor ... know where (usage of plural verb know) #1 (permalink) Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:24 am   Neither ... nor ... know where (usage of plural verb know)
 

Checking my friend’s test sentence
Neither Jane nor Diana know where
I underlined know and added ending -s according to the rule of agreement of the predicate with the subject. But I guess both variants are acceptable.
Is the usage of plural verb know more informal?
Pamela
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Neither...nor #2 (permalink) Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:46 am   Neither...nor
 

Hi Pamela
.
In your sentence, it would be correct to use a singular verb.
A plural verb can be used in a situation such as this:

Neither the paper nor the pencils are in the drawer.

The verb would agree with the noun it's closest to.

It gets trickier in a sentence like this:

There is neither paper nor pencils in the drawer.


The last sentence sounds a little odd to me, so I'd probably solve the problem this way:
There are neither pencils nor paper in the drawer. Very Happy

Amy
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Neither...nor #3 (permalink) Tue Oct 31, 2006 16:57 pm   Neither...nor
 

Thanks a billion, Amy! Your examples are fine as usual. Wink Very Happy
Pamela
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Ergative verbs #4 (permalink) Tue Oct 31, 2006 18:15 pm   Ergative verbs
 

Also, Neither/ So can be used with an inversion for the sake of emphasis
Butterfly
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Split infinitive | Ergative verbs
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