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Mar 9, 2019 · Some of the purists will tell you that "either" should take a singular verb. But that's not always how people speak. In the GloWbE corpus, "do either of" gets 237 hits, "does either of" gets only 30. (I have excluded cases where the following word is "you", because as Peter Shor points out, that takes "do" whether it is singular or plural).
Apr 9, 2019 · Either/Neither with Mixed Singulars and Plurals. A complication to these rules comes when one choice is singular and the other is plural. In this case, the general rule is that the verb should agree with the closest noun. In other words, when the either/neither phrase comes before the verb, the verb should agree with the second option.
- Either: Singular Or plural?
- Either with Singular Nouns
- Either-Or: Singular Or plural?
- How to Pronounce Either
- How to Use Either: Examples from Literature
The pronoun either means “the one or the other” of two things and is grammatically singular. It therefore takes singular verbs like is, has, and does in formal usage. Use eitherto refer to each of two persons or things. In informal usage, either may refer to one of two things or to both things at once, and accordingly take either a singular or a pl...
Either can also be used as a determiner followed by a singular nounto refer to each of two things. It cannot be followed by a plural noun.
With either-or constructions, the verb used should agree with the part closest to it. Either and or can be paired to join two subjects that share a single verb in a sentence. Use a singular or a plural verb to match the noun phraseclosest to it.
Either may be pronounced either way: it can start with the long E sound (EE) or with the diphthong EYE (/ˈiːðə(r)/, /EE-dhər/ or /ˈaɪðə(r)/, /EYE-dhər/). Both pronunciations are acceptable: the former (with the long E sound) is more common in American English, and the latter (starting with EYE) is more common in BritishEnglish. Similarly, the word ...
The following examples from published content show how either is generally treated as singular and takes singular verbs like is and has. In contrast, Salinger, in his first-person narrative, favors a more informal style and uses a plural verb with either. Similarly, in dialogue, eitheris often treated as plural, since a plural verb is sometimes the...
- Author
A. Recast the sentence by substituting a modal verb: Either you or your sister will have to do the chores. B. Recast the sentence by ellipsis and rearrangement: Either you are going to have to do the chores or your sister. C. Have the verb agree with the element nearest to it: Either you or your sister is going to have to do the chores.
Aug 14, 2024 · Pro tip: When using either/or and neither/nor use a singular verb in the sentence if both the subjects (nouns) are singular, for example, “either my mother or my father is coming”. “Is” is the singular verb in this sentence. But, if either of the subjects is plural, you have to use a plural verb. For example, “Either my mother or my ...
- Neither, nor, either and or are examples of words in English . Depending on how they are used in a sentence they take different forms of word class...
- Yes, in English neither and nor can be used together in a sentence to show 2 or more things are not true or don’t happen. For example, “neither my...
- Neither and nor are English words that are examples of conjunction. A conjunction is defined as “a word used to connect clauses or sentences or to...
Either - English Grammar Today - a reference to written and spoken English grammar and usage - Cambridge Dictionary
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Should you use a singular verb or a plural verb?
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Here's the breakdown on how people think the phrase is constructed: The wrong way: Either/Or construction: The sentence is a compound of two independent clauses. [conjunction]"either" [noun phrase]"my parents" [conjunction]"or" [noun phrase]"my sister (s)" [verb phrase]"are going to visit". Either my parents or my sisters are going to visit.
