None of us like / none of us likes?

[Niigatablue]

Which of these is correct?

None of us like fish.
None of us likes fish.

Thanks in advance!

[bhaisahab]

'None of us like...'

[competence]

Which of these is correct?

None of us like fish.
None of us likes fish.

Thanks in advance!

Hi Niigatablue,

I did a quick Google search and "none of us like" has 80,200 hits and "none of us likes" has 33,300 hits. That's a pretty good reflection of how common each option is. However it's easy to see where native speakers interpret this situation with some ambiguity. If you unconsciously think about "none of us" as "we" than it's natural to say "none of us like" (or in other words "We don't like"). If, however, you unconsciously think about the group itself as one entity that "none of us likes" is more natural (this would be similar to "everybody/nobody" in English which also takes the third person singular).

If Google hits accurately reflect the majority of English use, than we can say that many more English speakers intuitively interpret this situation as "we" instead of "everybody/nobody".

I hope that helps.



Matthew Balson
author of The Secret Lives of English Verbs

[Niigatablue]

Thanks for your help!