Neither ... nor ... know where (usage of plural verb know)

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Checking my friend’s test sentence
Neither Jane nor Diana know where …
I underlined know and added ending -s according to the rule of agreement of the predicate with the subject. But I guess both variants are acceptable.
Is the usage of plural verb know more informal?

2

Hi Pamela
.
In your sentence, it would be correct to use a singular verb.
A plural verb can be used in a situation such as this:

Neither the paper nor the pencils are in the drawer.

The verb would agree with the noun it’s closest to.

It gets trickier in a sentence like this:

There is neither paper nor pencils in the drawer.

The last sentence sounds a little odd to me, so I’d probably solve the problem this way:
There are neither pencils nor paper in the drawer. :smiley:

Amy

3

Thanks a billion, Amy! Your examples are fine as usual. :wink: :smiley:

4

Also, Neither/ So can be used with an inversion for the sake of emphasis