This cartoon was recently posted on Facebook. My sister (who is a retired HS English teacher) says the grammar is wrong and that the correct wording should be: “Neither one of us is.” but I disagree. I am not an English teacher but I believe that “US” relates to “WE” and the correct wording for … Read more
I’m sorry I couldn’t be more specific in my question title. I don’t have the vocabulary to pinpoint what exactly I have difficulties with yet; therefore, I’ll try to explain through examples. I came across this exercise on College Panda and was confused: “Neither the employees nor the owner (cares/care) about the customer.” I thought … Read more
Which one is accurate? …when one or two individuals do not have [an ID] or [IDs] another example: …this is the case when one or two students [are] or [is] missing Theoretically, if one individual is missing, then it’s an ID (first eg), and it should be “are” (second eg). We don’t know, so which … Read more
Like it or not, . . . (Whether you like it or not) I’ve come across this kind of phrase many times, but this is the only one–among no-subject subjunctives–that I can be sure it’s common and right to use. So, I want to know how far it is allowed to use no-subject subjunctives and … Read more
Here is my sentence: The report further identifies two partial sets, which are not in themselves default sets but which one can—wholly or partly—combine with default sets A or B, or indeed with any permutation of options. Should that have been “set A or B”? Is the set singular or plural? Here is a simpler … Read more
Consider the following sentence: A project is a large and/or complex undertaking. To me, the expression “and/or” seems redundant since in formal logic “or” implies “and”: Table: truth table for Table: truth table for Table: truth table for logical OR (i.e. ∨). logical AND (i.e. ∧). exclusive OR (i.e. ⊕). ———————– ———————– ———————– A B … Read more
look at these two sentences: neither the coach nor the players are going to the beach. neither the players nor the coach is going to the beach. why does one sentence use “are” while the other has “is”? does it have something to do with the arrangement of subjects or is there any other reason? … Read more
I was watching the film A Game of Shadows starring Robert Downey Junior and Jude Law when this line came up, “…neither you nor I is in control…” (I can’t remember the exact words that ended the phrase; if anyone can supply them, it would be much appreciated.) It immediately struck me as being odd. … Read more
I am changing a piece of text which current reads: Payment not deducted to also include the situation where payments are withheld. The suggested revision of text given to me is Payment not deducted or withheld Is this semantically correct? To me it reads: Payment not deducted and payment not withheld when what it should … Read more
However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge or truth. (Harry Potter book 1, p213) However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge nor truth. As I’m accustomed to ‘neither~nor’ phrase, ‘neither~or’ above is unfamiliar. Is the ‘neither’ in the first sentence a determiner? And when the ‘or’ is changed into ‘nor’, does ‘neither’ become … Read more
