,whichmeans“noteitheroftwo things,”isgrammaticallysingularandis thereforeusedwithasingularverb: Neitheranswerisright./Neitheroneishere. However,whenweuse(beforea pluralnounorpronoun),informalspeechand inwriting,weuseasingularverb.Yet,in speechandinformalwriting,people sometimesuseapluralverb.
Neitherofthemhasacar.
Neitheroftheanswersisright.
Neitherofuslikestea
Neitherofthemhaveacar.
Neitheroftheanswersareright.
Neitherofusliketea.
(twosingularsubjects)
Theverbisnormallysingularinaformalstyle,butcanbepluralinan informalstyle:
Neithershenorherhusbandhasarrived.(formal)
Neithershenorherhusbandhavearrived.(informal)
(onesubjectissingularandtheotherplural)
Thegeneralruleisthattheverbshouldagreewiththeclosestnoun:
Neithertheteachernorthestudentshavethetickets.
Neitherthestudentsnortheteacherhasthetickets.
neitherof+singular neitherof+plural formalcontext spokenandinformal writtenlanguage