Writing Tips
for clarity and concisenessArchive for July, 2008
Neither-nor: singular or plural verb?
According to the Chicago Manual of Style, in a sentence with more than one subject, the subject that’s closest to the verb determines the form of the verb:
Neither Henry nor his sons have a Prius (sons is plural and is closer to the verb than Henry is)
BUT
Neither the boys nor Henry has a Prius (Henry is singular and is closer to the verb than boys is).
If you believe that have sounds better, Chicago suggests arranging the sentence so that a plural noun is closer to the verb than a singular noun (Neither Henry nor the boys have a Prius).
And of course, not everyone abides by the Chicago Manual of Style. Other authorities say to use the plural form of the verb when any subject in a sentence is plural. (Link provided by Ted Dorsey.)
Cheers,
Tara Treasurefield
Tara’s Writing Studio
Hyphens in a common phrase
Good morning! This is a great day to take a look at hyphens. Here’s an example, taken from an email message I just received from my niece Laurie:
Robert has been canning bread and butter pickles.
When I first read this sentence, I pictured Laurie’s son Robert attempting to cram a loaf of bread into a canning jar, intending to can the butter pickles later. Then I realized that the absurd picture occurred to me because Laurie omitted a much-needed ingredient from this sentence: two hyphens.
Robert has been canning bread-and-butter pickles.
What a relief! With the hyphens in place, it’s clear that in this sentence, the common term “bread-and-butter” acts as a compound adjective modifying “pickles.”
Tip: When used as a noun, “bread and butter” is not hyphenated:
Singing was her passion, but bookkeeping was her bread and butter.
By the way, in case you’re not familiar with the term “bread and butter,” it means “source of sustenance,” or “livelihood.”
Cheers,
Tara Treasurefield
Tara’s Writing Studio
Neither-nor and the Freedom of Choice
I am having so much fun today I can hardly stand it. It’s the 4th of July, and I am celebrating the precious freedom to spend my time as I choose.
What does freedom of choice have to do with neither-nor, a pair of correlative conjunctions? It relates to a rule of grammar I described a few days ago. Here’s an excerpt from this rule as it appears in The Chicago Manual of Style:
Correlative conjunctions are used in pairs, often to join successive clauses that depend on each other to form a complete thought. Correlative conjunctions must frame structurally identical or matching sentence parts . . . each member of the pair should immediately precede the same part of speech. Examples:
Neither Sarah nor Sam plans to attend the concert.
Either George or the twins are going to bring the sushi.
In The Copyeditor’s Handbook, author Amy Einsohn explains that while grammatical formalists “insist that a pair of singular nouns joined by neither . . . nor is singular . . . notionalists allow the pair to be treated as singular or plural, depending on the emphasis desired.” Einsohn offers the following example:
Neither the president nor the secretary was at the meeting . . .
But . . .
Neither the president nor the secretary were at the meeting.
Are you a formalist or a notionalist? The choice is yours. It may be a small matter: But small choices make up much of our lives and so determine the extent of our freedom.
Cheers,
Tara Treasurefield
Tara’s Writing Studio
Professional Image
Today I rode into town with Marc, a friend, neighbor, and client. We didn’t use any gas or contribute to global warming, because the old Mercedes he bought for $500 runs on vegetable oil. It smells a little strange, and rattles quite a bit, but I thoroughly enjoyed the trip. I also enjoy the Prius that Marc and his wife Nina bought last year.
On the way to town, Marc thanked me for my edits to his new website. He designs photovoltaic energy systems, and said that he needed my help to project a professional image because he’s weak on grammar.
I was happy to help him, and happy to see that he has already incorporated some of my edits. But I’m not going to mention his url to anyone until he makes some of the other changes I recommended. Little things– like double-spacing between paragraphs–are important; even on pages filled with data and statistics, which many people probably won’t read.
For some reason, it hadn’t occurred to Marc (until I told him) that it’s not just correct grammar that reflects professionalism: It’s also the appearance of the words on the page. Web content that is grammatically accurate, well-organized, and neatly formatted assures visitors to the site that the business it represents delivers quality services or products.
Cheers,
Tara Treasurefield
Tara’s Writing Studio
Neither: an Indefinite Pronoun
Neither sometimes serves as an indefinite pronoun, which the Chicago Manual of Style defines in part as follows:
An indefinite pronoun is one that generally or indefinitely represents an object . . . The most common are another, any, both, each, either, neither, none, one other, some, and such . . . Each, either, and neither are also called distribute pronouns because they separate the objects referred to from others referred to nearby.
Chicago goes on to say that as the subject of a verb, an indefinite pronoun is usually singular, and that the form of an indefinite pronoun isn’t affected by gender or person.
Here are two examples:
Neither of the men knows how to sew; for that matter, neither of the women knows how to sew, either!
Neither of the peaches is ripe.
See? Since men, women, and peaches are plural, you may think that the verbs in these examples should also be plural (men know, women know, peaches are ripe).
Think again, and look for the subject: It’s not men, women, or peaches; they have full-time jobs as objects of the preposition of.
Surprise, surprise! Neither is the subject of both sentences, acting as an indefinite pronoun.
Caution: Don’t confuse the indefinite pronoun neither with the pair of correlative conjunctions neither-nor, the topic of yesterday’s post: Neither-Nor and Subject-Verb Agreement.
Cheers,
Tara Treasurefield
Tara’s Writing Studio
Neither-nor: Correlative Conjunctions
Over 30 years ago, I had a British boyfriend named Philip. He was sophisticated, well educated, and played classical music (beautifully) on his grand piano.
That alone would have been enough to blind me to his imperfections. But on top of all that greatness, his wife had died and he was raising their daughter Melanie on his own. In my eyes, he verged on sainthood, and I was in awe of him.
One day, Philip said something I have never forgotten:
Neither Melanie nor I watches much television.
Watches? Really? I would have put it this way:
Neither Melanie nor I watch much television.
Dead certain that Philip the Great couldn’t be wrong, I kept my preference for watch a secret, substituting alternatives such as these for neither-nor:
Melanie and I don’t watch much television.
I don’t watch much television; Melanie doesn’t, either.
I don’t watch much television and neither does Melanie.
And wouldn’t you know it? I was right all along! After all these years, I have finally learned that according to the Chicago Manual of Style, compound subjects joined with either-or or neither-nor take the form of the verb that goes with the subject closest to the verb, in both number and person. Here are a few examples:
Neither Sarah nor Sam plans to attend the concert.
Either George or the twins are going to bring the sushi.
Neither Henry nor his sons have a Prius.
Neither the boys nor Henry has a Prius.
And (drumroll):
Neither Melanie nor I watch much television.
By the way, neither-nor is a pair of correlative conjunctions. Like other correlative conjunctions (as-as, if-then, either-or, both-and, where-there, so-as, and not only-but also), neither and nor used together “join successive clauses that depend on each other to form a complete thought.” (Chicago Manual of Style.)
Cheers,
Tara Treasurefield
