I ask about 'neither' as a determiner. I want to dredge below the last 5 paras under 'Tip 2' , which don't explain. Neither does p 90, A Student's Introduction to English Grammar (2005).
Consider: 2. Neither of the parties ?IS? concerned.
= 3. Both two or more parties are NOT concerned
Does the plurality of the verb in 3, prove that 'neither' should be plural? Why or why not?
I edited the nouns in the original below to simplify.
You need to be careful, because there are two separate situations.
[I omit the second situation here, which I ask NOT about.](1) "Neither" withOUT "nor", as in "Neither of the … parties
is concerned with Egypt."If it is "neither" only, then it is singular and takes a singular verb
even though the plural verb might sound better to us.
Best Answer
You aren't talking about the parties together as a unified group, but how they feel individually. You generally are always doing this when you use neither.
This may help you understand:
Usually the one is understood and left out of the construct.
I'm not sure if the below is correct, but here goes:
Let's say you had a total of four parties, and for some reason, they were afflilated in two groups, i.e. party A and B, and party C and D. Then you could say:
You can see how this is confusing unless there's a strong context to help, so I would really avoid using neither in this situation, even if it is correct.