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grammatical number - "None" as plural indefinite pronoun


In my grammar book (English Grammar, HarperCollins Publishers), I read that none is occasionally treated as plural, but it is usually regarded as singular. Can you give me an example of sentence where none is used as plural pronoun?



Answer



None is commonly used as a plural. You can find many examples in the Corpus of Contemporary American English. For example, I searched for none of the [nn2] [vv0] to find examples where none refers to something in plural and then takes a plural verb. ([nn2] matches any plural common noun and [vv0] matches any simple verb not inflected for third person singular, and so must be plural if used with a plural common noun). There were 117 results that matched, including:



  • none of the airlines want

  • none of the alternatives look

  • none of the americans ask

  • none of the answers make

  • none of the appeals work

  • none of the articles mention

  • none of the artists take

  • none of the attendants remember

  • none of the authors speak

  • none of the averages reflect

  • none of the bankers quit

  • none of the beads come

  • none of the birds need

  • none of the boys seem

  • none of the broadcasts include

  • none of the broadcasts use


I also searched for none of the [nn2] [vvz] to find examples where the verb is inflected for third person singular, and there were just 57 matches, including:



  • none of the boys wants

  • none of the studies reports

  • none of the theories appears

  • none of the things quadrupeds

  • none of the vaccines addresses

  • none of the women sees

  • none of the actors knows

  • none of the alternatives meets

  • none of the authors calls

  • none of the books points

  • none of the candidates fits

  • none of the changes seems

  • none of the children knows

  • none of the children understands

  • none of the clubs pumps

  • none of the codes calls


This indicates to me that the “usually regarded as singular” traditional rule is in fact about half as common as the “occasionally treated as plural” exception.


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