Timeline for What is the appropriate question tag for sentences such as "Neither of you is..."?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
24 events
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| Nov 24, 2017 at 12:14 | history | protected | tchrist♦ | ||
| Nov 24, 2017 at 8:35 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | @FumbleFingers Neither of you can never be second person, singular or plural. Neither is third person. Using a plural verb is indeed possible (despite the adamant misconception that is must always be singular), but it remains third person. Just like in the question linked to by sumelic, this is one case where tag question grammar simply breaks down. “Neither of you is/are going, are you?” is utterly ungrammatical to many (including me). “… is he?” is grammatical and natural if both people in ‘you’ are male—otherwise there is no possible tag question available at all. | |
| Nov 24, 2017 at 6:01 | comment | added | herisson | Similar: One of us is wrong, aren't we? | |
| Apr 17, 2012 at 21:52 | history | edited | RegDwigнt |
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| Feb 20, 2012 at 18:35 | answer | added | Brett Reynolds | timeline score: 2 | |
| Feb 20, 2012 at 2:36 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/#!/StackEnglish/status/171423039316176896 | ||
| Feb 20, 2012 at 1:12 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @tchrist: You're clutching at straws. I only picked those two because they were universally-respected writers that were easy to find. Rules of grammar simply don't apply at this level. If you don't like Walpole's phrasing perhaps you just haven't read enough to get used to the full gamut of what competent writers are comfortable with. I wouldn't mind if he'd used the singular, but I certainly wouldn't start quoting "grammar" at one of the men who's been instrumental in defining it for later generations. | |
| Feb 20, 2012 at 1:07 | comment | added | tchrist♦ | @FumbleFingers The Walpole strikes my native-speaker ear as completely a/un/anti-grammatical, and I could never generate such a sentence. The Fitzgerald has interference from "I’m good enough, aren’t I?" | |
| Feb 20, 2012 at 0:58 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | (don't take me amiss. I like a good sparring partner! :) | |
| Feb 20, 2012 at 0:57 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @tchrist: Rubbish. Horace Walpole: "neither you nor your brother are quite well". I think it's fair to say Walpole is considered a "man of letters". If you think that's too old, are you going to trash F Scott Fitzgerald too? "Splendid is the one thing that neither you nor I are". You write of "rules"; I write of what competent writers write. | |
| Feb 19, 2012 at 21:26 | comment | added | tchrist♦ | @FumbleFingers Neither’s singularity/plurality is not a matter of taste, but of grammar. Neither can be plural when the nearer of the two disjuncts is plural: Neither your mother nor your brothers are here VS Neither your brothers nor your mother is here. But I would just say “Neither of you is going to the show tonight, eh?” myself. You could use “... right?” as well. | |
| Feb 19, 2012 at 18:57 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | Yeah, well it's only my opinion, of course, but I think "neither of" can be either singular or plural according to context/personal taste. Choosing to make it plural here seems "natural" (after all, you're talking to more than one person), and it certainly simplifies anything else you want to say afterwards! | |
| Feb 19, 2012 at 18:14 | answer | added | John Lawler | timeline score: 2 | |
| Feb 19, 2012 at 18:03 | comment | added | Kaiser Octavius | The former. But I suppose I'm convinced now that considering "neither of you" a second-person reference simplifies things. | |
| Feb 19, 2012 at 17:53 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | I still don't understand. Careless to keep phrasing the confirmatory rejoinder in the negative, or careless not to have realised that the issue only arises in the first place because you didn't want to use "are" as the first verb? | |
| Feb 19, 2012 at 17:48 | comment | added | Kaiser Octavius | Just careless of me. | |
| Feb 19, 2012 at 17:42 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | No it's not - Neither of you is second person plural in this construction. I also don't understand why you keep wanting to place your "repetitious/confirmatory clause" in the negative. The standard phrasing is as I've given it above. | |
| Feb 19, 2012 at 17:38 | comment | added | Kaiser Octavius | But "neither of you" would still be a third-person reference, so the question would simply change to whether "aren't you?" or "aren't they?" ought to be used. Still not something that has been asked. | |
| Feb 19, 2012 at 17:37 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | I don't understand. What are you asking that's any different to the ground covered by the question I linked to? | |
| Feb 19, 2012 at 17:35 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | There are any number of "grammar nazis" insisting that "neither" is singlular, but I think they are simply wrong. In this context it makes much more sense to say "Neither of you are going, are you?". | |
| Feb 19, 2012 at 17:12 | answer | added | Shoe | timeline score: 2 | |
| Feb 19, 2012 at 17:09 | history | edited | Kaiser Octavius | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Feb 19, 2012 at 17:05 | answer | added | Armen Ծիրունյան | timeline score: 4 | |
| Feb 19, 2012 at 16:59 | history | asked | Kaiser Octavius | CC BY-SA 3.0 |