Either of … (Plural/Singular)
I've been told that both sentences are correct, so how can I tell next time which form to use, plural or singular?
Do either of you have any money I can borrow?
Either of the plans is equally dangerous
grammaticality
asked 2 hours ago
SunnySideDownSunnySideDown
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I've been told that both sentences are correct, so how can I tell next time which form to use, plural or singular?
Do either of you have any money I can borrow?
Either of the plans is equally dangerous
grammaticality
asked 2 hours ago
SunnySideDownSunnySideDown
226
New contributor
SunnySideDown is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
I've been told that both sentences are correct, so how can I tell next time which form to use, plural or singular?
Do either of you have any money I can borrow?
Either of the plans is equally dangerous
grammaticality
asked 2 hours ago
SunnySideDownSunnySideDown
226
New contributor
SunnySideDown is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
I've been told that both sentences are correct, so how can I tell next time which form to use, plural or singular?
Do either of you have any money I can borrow?
Either of the plans is equally dangerous
grammaticality
grammaticality
asked 2 hours ago
SunnySideDownSunnySideDown
226
New contributor
SunnySideDown is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 2 hours ago
SunnySideDownSunnySideDown
226
New contributor
SunnySideDown is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 2 hours ago
SunnySideDownSunnySideDown
226
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asked 2 hours ago
SunnySideDownSunnySideDown
226
asked 2 hours ago
SunnySideDownSunnySideDown
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226
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3 Answers
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Some of the purists will tell you that "either" should take a singular verb. But that's not always how people speak.
In the GloWbE corpus, "do either of" gets 237 hits, "does either of" gets only 30. (I have excluded cases where the following word is "you", because as Peter Shor points out, that takes "do" whether it is singular or plural).
This answer discusses the question in more detail.
answered 1 hour ago
Colin FineColin Fine
64.9k175161
Could you provide a link to "GloWbE corpus"?
– SunnySideDown
59 mins ago
Hmm, have you also filtered out usages like "Why would I do either of those things" where "do" has a subject earlier in the sentence and is taking the "either of..." noun phrase as its object? (Those would naturally be excluded if you restricted the search to sentence-initial word sequences, but this answer as written doesn't seem to indicate whether that was a restriction.)
– sumelic
44 mins ago
add a comment |
They're both singular. But the first is second person.
Consider:
Does either of them have any money I can borrow?
Do either of you have any money I can borrow?
That's because we say you do and he/she has.
EDITED: In fact, "Does either of you" and "Do either of you" are both used by native English speakers. See Ngram. But if the subject isn't either of you, you should use a singular verb with either of.
answered 1 hour ago
Peter Shor Peter Shor
62.8k5120228
Just to make sure, what will be the correct answer here: Neither of you has/have any money.
– SunnySideDown
1 hour ago
However, "neither of you is..." sounds better to me and is more frequent on the Google Ngram Viewer than "neither of you are...".
– sumelic
58 mins ago
If you want your grammar to be consistent with the two examples you give, it should be Neither of you have any money.
– Peter Shor
48 mins ago
add a comment |
I agree with Peter Shor that in "Do either of you have any money I can borrow?", the use of "do" might have more to do with the presence of the second-person pronoun "you" than the presence of the word "either". To me, "Do either of them have any money I can borrow?" seems wrong, although not glaringly so (so I'm not sure what percentage of other English speakers will agree with me).*
In your question, you bolded have, so it might be worth mentioning that it is an infinitive in that sentence, and wouldn't change form based on the grammatical number of the subject. You would also use "have" in a sentence like "Does he have any money I can borrow?"
"Either of the plans is equally dangerous" sounds a bit odd to me, but not because of the "either of the ... is..." construction. For some reason, I don't like how the word "equally" is used in this sentence ("Either of the plans is dangerous" sounds fine to me). If I could, I would want to rephrase this sentence to "Both of the plans are equally dangerous" or "Both plans are equally dangerous."
*I just searched the BYU TV corpus for . DO EITHER OF THEM and got 3 results, compared to none for . DOES EITHER OF THEM, which makes me even less confident in my characterization of "do either of them" as wrong in the paragraph.
answered 50 mins ago
sumelicsumelic
49.2k8116223
add a comment |
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3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
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active
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votes
Some of the purists will tell you that "either" should take a singular verb. But that's not always how people speak.
In the GloWbE corpus, "do either of" gets 237 hits, "does either of" gets only 30. (I have excluded cases where the following word is "you", because as Peter Shor points out, that takes "do" whether it is singular or plural).
This answer discusses the question in more detail.
answered 1 hour ago
Colin FineColin Fine
64.9k175161
Could you provide a link to "GloWbE corpus"?
– SunnySideDown
59 mins ago
Hmm, have you also filtered out usages like "Why would I do either of those things" where "do" has a subject earlier in the sentence and is taking the "either of..." noun phrase as its object? (Those would naturally be excluded if you restricted the search to sentence-initial word sequences, but this answer as written doesn't seem to indicate whether that was a restriction.)
– sumelic
44 mins ago
add a comment |
Some of the purists will tell you that "either" should take a singular verb. But that's not always how people speak.
In the GloWbE corpus, "do either of" gets 237 hits, "does either of" gets only 30. (I have excluded cases where the following word is "you", because as Peter Shor points out, that takes "do" whether it is singular or plural).
This answer discusses the question in more detail.
answered 1 hour ago
Colin FineColin Fine
64.9k175161
Could you provide a link to "GloWbE corpus"?
– SunnySideDown
59 mins ago
Hmm, have you also filtered out usages like "Why would I do either of those things" where "do" has a subject earlier in the sentence and is taking the "either of..." noun phrase as its object? (Those would naturally be excluded if you restricted the search to sentence-initial word sequences, but this answer as written doesn't seem to indicate whether that was a restriction.)
– sumelic
44 mins ago
add a comment |
Some of the purists will tell you that "either" should take a singular verb. But that's not always how people speak.
In the GloWbE corpus, "do either of" gets 237 hits, "does either of" gets only 30. (I have excluded cases where the following word is "you", because as Peter Shor points out, that takes "do" whether it is singular or plural).
This answer discusses the question in more detail.
answered 1 hour ago
Colin FineColin Fine
64.9k175161
Some of the purists will tell you that "either" should take a singular verb. But that's not always how people speak.
In the GloWbE corpus, "do either of" gets 237 hits, "does either of" gets only 30. (I have excluded cases where the following word is "you", because as Peter Shor points out, that takes "do" whether it is singular or plural).
This answer discusses the question in more detail.
answered 1 hour ago
Colin FineColin Fine
64.9k175161
answered 1 hour ago
Colin FineColin Fine
64.9k175161
answered 1 hour ago
Colin FineColin Fine
64.9k175161
answered 1 hour ago
Colin FineColin Fine
64.9k175161
64.9k175161
Could you provide a link to "GloWbE corpus"?
– SunnySideDown
59 mins ago
Hmm, have you also filtered out usages like "Why would I do either of those things" where "do" has a subject earlier in the sentence and is taking the "either of..." noun phrase as its object? (Those would naturally be excluded if you restricted the search to sentence-initial word sequences, but this answer as written doesn't seem to indicate whether that was a restriction.)
– sumelic
44 mins ago
add a comment |
Could you provide a link to "GloWbE corpus"?
– SunnySideDown
59 mins ago
Hmm, have you also filtered out usages like "Why would I do either of those things" where "do" has a subject earlier in the sentence and is taking the "either of..." noun phrase as its object? (Those would naturally be excluded if you restricted the search to sentence-initial word sequences, but this answer as written doesn't seem to indicate whether that was a restriction.)
– sumelic
44 mins ago
Could you provide a link to "GloWbE corpus"?
– SunnySideDown
59 mins ago
Could you provide a link to "GloWbE corpus"?
– SunnySideDown
59 mins ago
Hmm, have you also filtered out usages like "Why would I do either of those things" where "do" has a subject earlier in the sentence and is taking the "either of..." noun phrase as its object? (Those would naturally be excluded if you restricted the search to sentence-initial word sequences, but this answer as written doesn't seem to indicate whether that was a restriction.)
– sumelic
44 mins ago
Hmm, have you also filtered out usages like "Why would I do either of those things" where "do" has a subject earlier in the sentence and is taking the "either of..." noun phrase as its object? (Those would naturally be excluded if you restricted the search to sentence-initial word sequences, but this answer as written doesn't seem to indicate whether that was a restriction.)
– sumelic
44 mins ago
add a comment |
They're both singular. But the first is second person.
Consider:
Does either of them have any money I can borrow?
Do either of you have any money I can borrow?
That's because we say you do and he/she has.
EDITED: In fact, "Does either of you" and "Do either of you" are both used by native English speakers. See Ngram. But if the subject isn't either of you, you should use a singular verb with either of.
answered 1 hour ago
Peter Shor Peter Shor
62.8k5120228
Just to make sure, what will be the correct answer here: Neither of you has/have any money.
– SunnySideDown
1 hour ago
However, "neither of you is..." sounds better to me and is more frequent on the Google Ngram Viewer than "neither of you are...".
– sumelic
58 mins ago
If you want your grammar to be consistent with the two examples you give, it should be Neither of you have any money.
– Peter Shor
48 mins ago
add a comment |
They're both singular. But the first is second person.
Consider:
Does either of them have any money I can borrow?
Do either of you have any money I can borrow?
That's because we say you do and he/she has.
EDITED: In fact, "Does either of you" and "Do either of you" are both used by native English speakers. See Ngram. But if the subject isn't either of you, you should use a singular verb with either of.
answered 1 hour ago
Peter Shor Peter Shor
62.8k5120228
Just to make sure, what will be the correct answer here: Neither of you has/have any money.
– SunnySideDown
1 hour ago
However, "neither of you is..." sounds better to me and is more frequent on the Google Ngram Viewer than "neither of you are...".
– sumelic
58 mins ago
If you want your grammar to be consistent with the two examples you give, it should be Neither of you have any money.
– Peter Shor
48 mins ago
add a comment |
They're both singular. But the first is second person.
Consider:
Does either of them have any money I can borrow?
Do either of you have any money I can borrow?
That's because we say you do and he/she has.
EDITED: In fact, "Does either of you" and "Do either of you" are both used by native English speakers. See Ngram. But if the subject isn't either of you, you should use a singular verb with either of.
answered 1 hour ago
Peter Shor Peter Shor
62.8k5120228
They're both singular. But the first is second person.
Consider:
Does either of them have any money I can borrow?
Do either of you have any money I can borrow?
That's because we say you do and he/she has.
EDITED: In fact, "Does either of you" and "Do either of you" are both used by native English speakers. See Ngram. But if the subject isn't either of you, you should use a singular verb with either of.
answered 1 hour ago
Peter Shor Peter Shor
62.8k5120228
edited 53 mins ago
answered 1 hour ago
Peter Shor Peter Shor
62.8k5120228
answered 1 hour ago
Peter Shor Peter Shor
62.8k5120228
answered 1 hour ago
Peter Shor Peter Shor
62.8k5120228
62.8k5120228
Just to make sure, what will be the correct answer here: Neither of you has/have any money.
– SunnySideDown
1 hour ago
However, "neither of you is..." sounds better to me and is more frequent on the Google Ngram Viewer than "neither of you are...".
– sumelic
58 mins ago
If you want your grammar to be consistent with the two examples you give, it should be Neither of you have any money.
– Peter Shor
48 mins ago
add a comment |
Just to make sure, what will be the correct answer here: Neither of you has/have any money.
– SunnySideDown
1 hour ago
However, "neither of you is..." sounds better to me and is more frequent on the Google Ngram Viewer than "neither of you are...".
– sumelic
58 mins ago
If you want your grammar to be consistent with the two examples you give, it should be Neither of you have any money.
– Peter Shor
48 mins ago
Just to make sure, what will be the correct answer here: Neither of you has/have any money.
– SunnySideDown
1 hour ago
Just to make sure, what will be the correct answer here: Neither of you has/have any money.
– SunnySideDown
1 hour ago
However, "neither of you is..." sounds better to me and is more frequent on the Google Ngram Viewer than "neither of you are...".
– sumelic
58 mins ago
However, "neither of you is..." sounds better to me and is more frequent on the Google Ngram Viewer than "neither of you are...".
– sumelic
58 mins ago
If you want your grammar to be consistent with the two examples you give, it should be Neither of you have any money.
– Peter Shor
48 mins ago
If you want your grammar to be consistent with the two examples you give, it should be Neither of you have any money.
– Peter Shor
48 mins ago
add a comment |
I agree with Peter Shor that in "Do either of you have any money I can borrow?", the use of "do" might have more to do with the presence of the second-person pronoun "you" than the presence of the word "either". To me, "Do either of them have any money I can borrow?" seems wrong, although not glaringly so (so I'm not sure what percentage of other English speakers will agree with me).*
In your question, you bolded have, so it might be worth mentioning that it is an infinitive in that sentence, and wouldn't change form based on the grammatical number of the subject. You would also use "have" in a sentence like "Does he have any money I can borrow?"
"Either of the plans is equally dangerous" sounds a bit odd to me, but not because of the "either of the ... is..." construction. For some reason, I don't like how the word "equally" is used in this sentence ("Either of the plans is dangerous" sounds fine to me). If I could, I would want to rephrase this sentence to "Both of the plans are equally dangerous" or "Both plans are equally dangerous."
*I just searched the BYU TV corpus for . DO EITHER OF THEM and got 3 results, compared to none for . DOES EITHER OF THEM, which makes me even less confident in my characterization of "do either of them" as wrong in the paragraph.
answered 50 mins ago
sumelicsumelic
49.2k8116223
add a comment |
I agree with Peter Shor that in "Do either of you have any money I can borrow?", the use of "do" might have more to do with the presence of the second-person pronoun "you" than the presence of the word "either". To me, "Do either of them have any money I can borrow?" seems wrong, although not glaringly so (so I'm not sure what percentage of other English speakers will agree with me).*
In your question, you bolded have, so it might be worth mentioning that it is an infinitive in that sentence, and wouldn't change form based on the grammatical number of the subject. You would also use "have" in a sentence like "Does he have any money I can borrow?"
"Either of the plans is equally dangerous" sounds a bit odd to me, but not because of the "either of the ... is..." construction. For some reason, I don't like how the word "equally" is used in this sentence ("Either of the plans is dangerous" sounds fine to me). If I could, I would want to rephrase this sentence to "Both of the plans are equally dangerous" or "Both plans are equally dangerous."
*I just searched the BYU TV corpus for . DO EITHER OF THEM and got 3 results, compared to none for . DOES EITHER OF THEM, which makes me even less confident in my characterization of "do either of them" as wrong in the paragraph.
answered 50 mins ago
sumelicsumelic
49.2k8116223
add a comment |
I agree with Peter Shor that in "Do either of you have any money I can borrow?", the use of "do" might have more to do with the presence of the second-person pronoun "you" than the presence of the word "either". To me, "Do either of them have any money I can borrow?" seems wrong, although not glaringly so (so I'm not sure what percentage of other English speakers will agree with me).*
In your question, you bolded have, so it might be worth mentioning that it is an infinitive in that sentence, and wouldn't change form based on the grammatical number of the subject. You would also use "have" in a sentence like "Does he have any money I can borrow?"
"Either of the plans is equally dangerous" sounds a bit odd to me, but not because of the "either of the ... is..." construction. For some reason, I don't like how the word "equally" is used in this sentence ("Either of the plans is dangerous" sounds fine to me). If I could, I would want to rephrase this sentence to "Both of the plans are equally dangerous" or "Both plans are equally dangerous."
*I just searched the BYU TV corpus for . DO EITHER OF THEM and got 3 results, compared to none for . DOES EITHER OF THEM, which makes me even less confident in my characterization of "do either of them" as wrong in the paragraph.
answered 50 mins ago
sumelicsumelic
49.2k8116223
I agree with Peter Shor that in "Do either of you have any money I can borrow?", the use of "do" might have more to do with the presence of the second-person pronoun "you" than the presence of the word "either". To me, "Do either of them have any money I can borrow?" seems wrong, although not glaringly so (so I'm not sure what percentage of other English speakers will agree with me).*
In your question, you bolded have, so it might be worth mentioning that it is an infinitive in that sentence, and wouldn't change form based on the grammatical number of the subject. You would also use "have" in a sentence like "Does he have any money I can borrow?"
"Either of the plans is equally dangerous" sounds a bit odd to me, but not because of the "either of the ... is..." construction. For some reason, I don't like how the word "equally" is used in this sentence ("Either of the plans is dangerous" sounds fine to me). If I could, I would want to rephrase this sentence to "Both of the plans are equally dangerous" or "Both plans are equally dangerous."
*I just searched the BYU TV corpus for . DO EITHER OF THEM and got 3 results, compared to none for . DOES EITHER OF THEM, which makes me even less confident in my characterization of "do either of them" as wrong in the paragraph.
answered 50 mins ago
sumelicsumelic
49.2k8116223
edited 27 mins ago
answered 50 mins ago
sumelicsumelic
49.2k8116223
answered 50 mins ago
sumelicsumelic
49.2k8116223
answered 50 mins ago
sumelicsumelic
49.2k8116223
49.2k8116223
add a comment |
add a comment |
SunnySideDown is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
SunnySideDown is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
SunnySideDown is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
SunnySideDown is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
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