none - singular or plural

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a) None of this add up

or

b) None of this adds up

I think (b) is correct ..Am I right?
 

Offroad

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That's a quite interesting question.

To me, 'none of this adds up' is grammatical, but doesn't make much sense, because 'none' might give the idea that there's more than one item among a few/many:

None of these work.;-)
No one of these work.;-)
No one of this adds up.:-?

Unless of course, the context is different:

None of this [kind of product] works.
 

bertietheblue

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That's a quite interesting question.

To me, 'none of this adds up' is grammatical, but doesn't make much sense, because 'none' might give the idea that there's more than one item
'None' can mean 'no part of' without any suggestion of there being more than one so 'None of this adds up' is fine
among a few/many:

None of these work.;-)
No one of these work.;-) You mean 'Not one of these works'
No one of this adds up.:-?

Unless of course, the context is different:

None of this [kind of product] works.I don't think this is correct. Give an example of this kind of sentence.

Bertie
 

Offroad

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None of this [kind of product] works.I don't think this is correct. Give an example of this kind of sentence.
Bertie
Interesting!

None of these mobile phones work. (works for me ;-))
None of this mobile phone works. (doesn't :-?)
Not a single mobile phone of this brand works.
None of them work.

Instead of that, I'd just say:

This mobile phone doesn't work.

However, I may be wrong!
 

Raymott

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Interesting!

None of these mobile phones work. (works for me ;-))
None of this mobile phone works. (doesn't :-?)
Not a single mobile phone of this brand works.
None of them work.

Instead of that, I'd just say:

This mobile phone doesn't work.

However, I may be wrong!
In AusE, "none of them work" is normal.
I don't think it's possible to win an argument by asserting that 'none' is either singular or plural.

Here are more opinions:
Is it none of them works or none of them work? - Yahoo! Answers
Singular/plural - none - WordReference Forums
 

bertietheblue

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In AusE, "none of them work" is normal.
I don't think it's possible to win an argument by asserting that 'none' is either singular or plural. I'd say in UK English too both 'none of them work/none of them works' are OK. When you think about it, it's just another way of saying 'All of them do not work' (note plural)/ 'Not one of them works' (note singular) which have exactly the same meaning

Here are more opinions:
Is it none of them works or none of them work? - Yahoo! Answers
Singular/plural - none - WordReference Forums

Bertie
 
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