Poll: Neither Jane nor Sue ______ they will pass.
Neither Jane nor Sue ______ they will pass. |
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Votes: 491
Comments: 6
Added: April 2004
Comments:
| Reader BATS - 5th December 2006 19:50 |
| The neither-nor pair is saying not this one and not that one, with one being the determiner for the verb usage. The non-standard use of they should actually be the pronound she since both names are obviously female. |
| Gillian - 7th December 2006 08:47 |
| I disagree- they could individually thinking about both passing. |
| Cyndi - 7th May 2007 13:46 |
| When we say 'Neither-nor' we are talking of them as a whole; hence 'believe'. But if we say 'Either - or' we are talking of them as singular, hence it would be 'Either Jane or Sue believes they will pass. |
| teia_petrescu - 25th August 2007 23:04 |
| In this case we have to apply the rule of proximity. When subjects in a sentence are linked by the correlative conjunctions "neither/nor," the subject that is closer to the verb determines the number of the verb. Thus, the correct answer is "believes". |
| john rich - 24th November 2008 09:27 |
| jane and sue are plural so we use believe without "s" |
| quanysha - 22nd April 2009 20:43 |
| Is it me or am I just going blind to see that believe sounds way better than believes or either. But i guess its just me. |
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