Which one is correct or more common?
Any of us is a teacher
Any of us are a teacher
Grammatically it should be “is”, but in most contexts this would be an awkward and unclear sentence. Perhaps you mean “All of us are teachers”?
No, I mean “nobody is a teacher”. I need a gramatical rule. Thanks a lot
“any of us is a teacher”, as far as it makes sense by itself, means almost the exact opposite of “nobody is a teacher”.
Yeah, now I think I understood. I should have written in the first post “any of us isn’t a teacher” or “none of us is a teacher”. Did I understand what you mean? Could you tell me which is better?
‘Any of us isn’t a teacher’ is incorrect.
If ‘Nobody is a teacher’ does not fit the bill, perhaps you are looking for, ‘None of us are teachers’.
Actually, I’ve got confused. The root cause of this topic was this test:
Choose the best answer.
She ____ that any of the three men ____ here.
A) didn’t think / are
B) will not think / had been
C) did not think / were
D) didn’t think / was
E) hadn’t thought / will be
In our English class we took D. And the teacher said It was because we must use singular verb with ‘any’.
Please, explain this test for me. I will not be surprised if you say that the test is flawed. Because in or country people who make tests for exams are not very experienced. It is a normal situation when a test turns out to be flawed.
Thank you
(D) is formally correct. However, many native speakers would accept, or prefer, ©. As with “none”, insisting that “any” must be singular is contrary to many people’s intuition and natural inclination.
It may be helpful to also return to your original question and put those words in a context in which they might work:
“I don’t think that any of us are a teacher” is wrong because “are” does not agree with “a teacher”.
“I don’t think that any of us is a teacher” is formally correct.
“I don’t think that any of are teachers” would be widely used and accepted.
Thanks a lot.