<p>I'm talking about "neither nor" "either or" "anyone" "everyone" etc. </p>
<p>Does anyone have a link to a good, synthesized guide for this?</p>
<p>example: neither mary nor fred have a good guide. or is it...
neither mary nor fred has a good guide.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help guys.</p>
<p>“anyone” and “everyone” are always singular.</p>
<p>Phrases like “none of them” and “neither of them” are singular, but reputable writers have been using plural verbs with them for a long time and it is kind of standard (acceptable to some people) to say something like None of them were found. I don’t believe there is a universally accepted stance for this. I would accept either depending on how it sounds.</p>
<p>The standard rule for “neither X nor Y” and “either X or Y” is that Y (the structure closer to the verb) determines whether the verb is singular or plural: Neither he nor they were found. Neither they nor he was found. This is pretty universal. </p>
<p>(With phrases like “none of them,” if you want the most uncontroversial answer–that is, the answer that the SAT would probably agree with–then you would use only singular verbs since, technically, “none,” a singular noun, is the main constituent of the subject “none of them.”)</p>