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SC either/neither used without or/nor is always singular?

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gobaudd
 Post subject: SC either/neither used without or/nor is always singular?
 Post Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 11:51 am 
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Students


Posts: 11
In the 4th edition sentence correction guide on page 39 at the bottom it talks about "or, either ... or, & neither ... nor." It notes an exception when the words "either" or "neither" are used without "or" or "nor." It says in this case the words take only singular verbs. Is the below a correct example of this?

Neither of the coaches is going to the beach.

Is that sentence correct or should it be

Neither of the coaches are going to the beach.
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gobaudd
 Post subject: Re: SC either/neither used without or/nor is always singular?
 Post Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 1:34 pm 
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Students


Posts: 11
Also at the top of page 88 it says

"Which or whom sometimes follow prepositions: ..."

shouldn't that be FOLLOWS ?
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gokul_nair1984
 Post subject: Re: SC either/neither used without or/nor is always singular?
 Post Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 2:29 pm 
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Students


Posts: 170
gobaudd wrote:
Neither of the coaches is going to the beach.

This is the correct usage

When either and neither are subjects, they always take singular verbs.
Examples:
Neither of them is available to speak right now.
Either of us is capable of doing the job.

When a singular and plural subject are connected by either/or or neither/nor, put the plural subject last and use a plural verb.

Example:
Neither Jenny nor the others are available.
Neither she nor I am going to the festival.


gobaudd wrote:
Also at the top of page 88 it says

"Which or whom sometimes follow prepositions: ..."

shouldn't that be FOLLOWS ?


Which or Whom follow..( Because it is either Which or Whom. Not Both)
Which and Whom follows..(Because they both do. Hence Plural)
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tim
 Post subject: Re: SC either/neither used without or/nor is always singular?
 Post Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 1:50 pm 
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ManhattanGMAT Staff


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Location: Southwest Airlines, seat 21C
Sorry Gokul, I think you have it backwards. Gobaudd, you caught us. :) Classic case of our writers going with something that sounded good at the expense of following through on correct GMAT grammar in the supplementary text of our books. A big lesson here though is that THE OG DOES THIS TOO, so be careful. You will often find examples in CR or RC passages, or in their explanations, that violate the GMAT’s SC rules. Don’t allow this to create confusion in your mind about the rules..

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor
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gokul_nair1984
 Post subject: Re: SC either/neither used without or/nor is always singular?
 Post Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 7:15 pm 
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Students


Posts: 170
Tim:

[url]
http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/subjectVerbAgree.asp[/url]

I don't know whether in GMAT land english grammar is treated differently.
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tim
 Post subject: Re: SC either/neither used without or/nor is always singular?
 Post Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 7:40 am 
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ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 2242
Location: Southwest Airlines, seat 21C
Hi Gokul,
First thing to keep in mind is that yes sometimes in GMAT land grammar is different from what you see elsewhere. In this case though, GMAT grammar agrees with everyone else, but "follow" is the plural verb and "follows" is the singular verb. That's what you got backwards..

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor
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