Subjet verb agreement -None,Not one

[sharok50]

can anyone help ?

1.None of the investors is / are ?
2.Not one of the investors is/are ?
3.None of the attempts explains/explain?
4.none of the energy was/were?


please help me.

[sunny.jain]

1.None of the investors are
2.Not one of the investors is
3.None of the attempts explain
4.none of the energy was

Hope it will help.

[sharok50]

Hi sunny,
It seems that you are applying SANAM rule. I got two official questions where 'none' is considered singular although 'of construction' contains plural things.

Please see OG 11th edition ,sc-2 says 'None is ........'
OG 11th edition ,SC- 17says, 'None of the attempts....... explains

As i can not post OG questions here ,could you please have a look on those questions.

It seems to me that None is always Singular.

Now What is the logical difference between-

1.None of the investors
2.Not one of the investors

I think that Not one = None.
Here i also find that None should be singular always.

So SANAM rule should be SAAM rule.

Any help form the great instructors?

[sunny.jain]

I think u are confused with Verb and noun.

Remember this little rule :

When you use 's' with Noun, it becomes PLURAL.
When you use 's' with verb, it becomes SINGULAR.

Q 17) None of the attempts : the attempts : acting as a plural noun.

If it were :
None of the students attempts : it would have been definitely WRONG.

Q 2)
None is : Yeah None is Singular here.

The Rule doesnt say that None is Singular. It says when you use None, The verb depend upon the Object None is modifying. For eg : none of student attempts to solve the question.

Attempts Depend upon Student, not "None"

[sharok50]

Hi sunny ,

Just tell me In SC - 17 "explains" depends on what?

as you said "explains" should depend on "attempts".if so "attempts" is plural and
the verb should be "explain". but it's not infact so .
SC- 02 " is " depeds on what?

''is'' depends on "vast tides". "Vast tides" is plural so the the verb should be "are".but it's not infact so.

help needed

[mikrodj]

None can be singular or plural.
Here there is an awesome explanation by Ron Purewal

According to most English-language experts, 'none' is acceptable in either the singular or the plural. The usage most steeped in tradition, however, is the singular ('None of the patients was able to give informed consent'). You can think of 'none' in this regard as a contraction of 'not one' (although it isn't really): Not one of the pregnancies was...
Of course, 'none' must be plural if it appears in a sentence like the following: None but the most fanatical of Packers fans travel (not 'travels') 2000 miles to attend a game.

[supshalu]

Finally which one is correct usage .. NONE in singular or plural ?
Doesnt it depend on " NONE of (XYZ) ".
I mean if XYZ is plural.. NONE takes plural verb
and if singular then SINGIULAR verb

Any1anyhelp pls

[Ben Ku]

"None" in "None of X" can be either singular or plural; it does not depend on whether X is singular or plural. When it shows up on the GMAT, whether "none" is singular or plural will not be the determining factor for the correct answer. Either of the two below are fine:

None of the students was able to answer the question.
None of the students were able to answer the question.

Whether "none" should be singular or plural may depend on clues from other parts of the sentence. Below, none is plural because of the plural pronoun "they":

None of the students were able to answer the question correctly when they took the test.

Hope that helps.