A few days ago
Anonymous

english question?

Which one of the following complete subjects agree with the predicate “has learned Spanish”?

A. Jennifer and her class

B. The twins, Tina and Terry,

C. Neither Jane nor Henry

D. Either Samuel or his children

Top 6 Answers
A few days ago
dnldslk

Favorite Answer

D. Either. Either is considered singular

Neither is considered plural and either is considered singular. You just have to memorize how either and neither are used.

Both A and B have plural subjects and would take a plural verb.

Source:

Harbrace College Handbook, Revised 13th Edition.

Page 86-87 (for coverage of NEITHER and EITHER. The other two are obvious.)

For instance, the book offers these two sentences as correct:

“Neither the basket nor the apples were expensive.” (p.86)

“Either of them is willing to shovel the driveway.” (p.87)

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A few days ago
danboyb
C – you need a singular subject. Subjects connected by or or nor require a verb that agrees with the closest subject. Henry has learned. Look at D; since children is closer you have to use have, but if you flip it, you’d have Samuel closer and thus use has.

BE CAREFUL: either and neither follow one rule (always singular) and either-or and neither-nor follow a different rule. Read your rules and examples carefully. Either and neither usually have prepositional phrases after them; remove those phrases since they don’t contain the subject

Ex. Neither of the boys is here.

Ex. Neither the boys nor Mary is here.

Same goes for either.

Ex. Either of the boys needs help.

Ex. Either the girls or the boy is right.

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A few days ago
jml167
It would be answer C. Neither Jane nor Henry has learned Spanish. This is because the other subjects are all plurals and so you would need to use the word “have” instead of “has”.

A. Jennifer and her class (class is plural)

B. The twins (you are talking about two people)

D. Children (plural)

But in answer C, you there are two single people that are being referred to, so you can you use has.

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A few days ago
Anonymous
The verb “has” is singular–so you need a singular subject. The only one would be “C”–you can’t use “D” because “children” is plural, which is the closest to “has.”

If you said, “Either the children or Samuel”, then you could use “has.” (neither/nor and either/or are used as conjunctions in these examples.)

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A few days ago
SJ
I think B – The twins, Tina and Terry.
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A few days ago
misshiccups
Definitely C.
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