none of the ladies

[vladz]

I have been having this concern since I started teaching English. I often use singular verb for the pronoun "none" but lately my collegues told me that it is not always singular--the veb should agree to the object of the prepostion. I checked my books and the internet and found out that there are conflicting rules in agreement of "none" to the verb. Could you please give me a clearer explanation on the agreement of "none" to the verb.

I would appreciate any assistance that you could give.

[Tdol]

Traditionally, it was followed by a singular, though nowadays I'd say the plural is probably more common. After 'none of' we generally use a plural:

http://www.bartleby.com/64/C001/038.html