Neither: Singular or Plural? (Stop making this common mistake!)

Which verb form to use after the word neither? This can be very confusing, and I don't blame you. It actually is a little confusing. Let me show you a couple of different sentence structures using neither. And as I'm explaining it, try to create your own sentence with neither, following the examples, and put it in the comments, okay? So, we have a few different ways to use neither in a sentence. When we have a singular noun, like answer or candidate, those are both singular nouns, right? Then we use a singular verb. Neither answer is correct, okay? So, I had two answers, and neither one is correct. Neither candidate was qualified. So, I had two candidates for a job. Both of them were not qualified. I have a singular noun there and a singular verb. Neither answer is correct. Neither candidate was qualified. Now, there are different ways to use neither in a sentence. We can also have neither of plus a plural. So, I can say, neither of my parents, okay, that's a plural noun, is retired. Or I can say, neither of my parents are retired. Both are considered correct. I think technically, neither is always supposed to have a singular verb. However, sometimes it sounds a little funny to have parents is, right? Because in a normal sentence, you would have my parents are. So, it's also acceptable to say, neither of my parents are retired. So, with this structure, neither of plus a plural, you can't lose. Both ways are correct and common and accepted, all right? Neither of my kids enjoy getting up early for school. Or neither of my kids enjoys getting up early for school. Personally, I tend to like having a plural verb there because I think it just matches better with the noun. A different structure using neither is neither a nor b, okay? So, we have, this is when we use neither and nor. So, I have two sentences here. Neither the teacher nor the students are ready. Or if I just switch those nouns around, neither the students nor the teacher is ready. And in this case, it's good to make the verb match the noun closest to it. So, if I have students being the closest noun to the verb, then I would say are. Neither the teacher nor the students are ready. And if I say it the other way around with the singular noun teacher being closest to the verb, then I would say neither the students nor the teacher is ready, okay? Makes sense? So, we have a couple of different structures. If it's just a singular noun, then we always use a singular verb. If we have neither of plus a plural, then we can use either one, really. And if we have neither a nor b, then we tend to match the verb with the closest noun. Got it? Try to make your own example sentence in the comments. And let me take a look at the comments to see if there are any questions about neither before we move on, okay? Don't be shy. Try to make your own sentence. Let me think of... Somebody's asking, does neither always mean two things? Yes, we would always use neither for two things. So, in this example, neither answer is correct. We're talking about two answers. Neither candidate was qualified. We're talking about two candidates. If there's more than two, then we would say none of the answers are correct. None of the candidates were qualified. Okay, here's a good one. What about groups? Team, class of students, animal, herds, etc. Usually, those are considered as singular, considered to be singular. So, neither team qualified for the championships or neither of the teams... Wait, let me think. Neither team travels or neither of the teams travel. So, with a group... Okay, here's another one. Neither group was ready for the test. I'm talking about maybe two groups of students. Neither group was ready, neither of the groups were ready. Same type of thing. Groups in English tend to be treated as singular. So, family is a singular noun, and then we would have families being plural. Let's see. A herd of animals, a flock of geese. We have flock and flocks. Okay, let's see what else we have. Neither the students nor the teacher was aware of the change. Great. Neither argument is correct. Perfect. Neither... Oh, just a little spelling adjustment there. Neither my husband nor I like football. Neither me nor my friends are interested in yoga. Great job. Yes, if you want to keep going, keep learning, then I suggest you download the 30 mini lessons that I believe the link is in the description of this video. Just put in your email address and you will automatically get an email with that downloadable PDF. The 30 quick lessons in the PDF are different from the ones we covered today.