neither nor question

<p>which is correct</p>

<li>neither of the boys are/neither of the boys is</li>
</ol>

<p>and also</p>

<li>neither John nor his family were/neither john nor his family was</li>
</ol>

<p>i would say is/was…but im not sure(since they are all singular)</p>

<p>for neither nor, the verb agrees with second noun right?</p>

<li>so like what would neither john nor the students were/neither john nor the students was</li>
</ol>

<p>thats were right?</p>

<ol>
<li>I think "neither...is" is right, because the subject is neither, "of the boys" is just a prepostitional phrase. Since "is" agrees with neither, it's right.</li>
</ol>

<p>2.I think you're right about the second one.</p>

<ol>
<li>Should be "were", because "students" is plural, and agreement with second noun is correct.</li>
</ol>

<ol>
<li>neither/are</li>
<li>neither/was</li>
<li>neither/were</li>
</ol>

<p>mulberry is right,</p>

<p>book worm is an epic fail</p>

<p>here is a good explanation on neither/nor

[quote]

The Singular and Plural of It...</p>

<p>Remember: If your element (the words that follow neither or either) is singular, then your verb needs to be singular; if one or both of your elements is plural, then your verb need to be plural.</p>

<pre><code>* Neither Jaymee nor Dave is having a party. (Jaymee and Dave are singular, so you use the singular "is", not "were".
* Either the dancer or the acrobats are doing the tricks. (One of the subjects is plural, so "are" instead of "is" is used.
</code></pre>

<p>

[/quote]
</p>

<p>^ I disagree. Even though it applies most of the time.
If you follow that rule, that would mean that #2 would be neither/were. Which isn't the case.</p>

<p>Isn't "family" supposed to be technically a singular noun? Yes, I'm aware that family means that there is more than one person, but since it's a group, it is singular? So shouldn't it be neither....was?</p>

<p>^ haha, yeah i guess it's considered one entity. so yeah, it's neither/was either way.</p>

<p>mulbery and strangeindianfoo fail</p>

<ol>
<li>neither is/was because neither means "not either" and dont say either are/were you say either is/was</li>
</ol>

<p>bookworm was right</p>

<p>for example</p>

<p>neither mulbery nor strangeindianfoo knows what he or she is talking about</p>

<p>capiche?
thanks</p>