To distinguish singular and plural, determine if the sentence subject has one part or multiple parts. These sentences show how none doesn’t always have to be singular.
In this case, none conveys “not any” of a plural group of “friends.” Here, the object of the preposition ( friends) informs the number of both the collective noun ( none) and the verb. None of my friends are going to watch the game tonight.In this case, we use the singular “is” because none translates into “not one.” I have a presentation coming up, but none of my shirts is clean.To see how this would work grammatically, consider two different sentences. Things change when the subject the word applies to-the thing there is none of-is plural. While none is often a singular word, it doesn’t always have to be. The reason it matters whether none is singular or plural is we would want to know whether it’s correct to say “none is” or “none are.” The answer isn’t always as simple as the rule of thumb so many teachers and editors might quote. In this common type of wording, none refers to the singular pizza, making the grammar easy and clear. Consider the following sentence: My roommate said he ordered a pizza for us, but when I got home none of it was left. That would then mean that the surrounding verbs and adjectives would need to follow suit as well. If you have friends and family members with an interest in grammar, asking whether the word none is singular or plural is a good way to start a spirited discussion (and if you have this kind of social circle, we would enjoy knowing how the discussion concluded, but we digress).įor many, the presumed wisdom is that none is a singular word that stems from “not one.” Following that logic, other parts of a sentence associated with it should likewise be singular.
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