When to use plural verbs with ‘neither’
May 12, 2026 12:41 am
Akeem Lasisi
By Akeem Lasisi
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There is a question many people recently got wrong in our homework series. It centres on the choices that ‘neither’ makes when used with ‘nor’ to connect two or more negative alternatives. The outcome shows that many believe only singular verbs are required in the context. The question:
Neither Akin nor the twins … present. (A. could B. was C. are D. is)
Well, let’s consider this other statement first:
Neither Juliet nor Bimbola needs the chair.
While the sentence remains grammatically valid, there are times singular verbs are no longer needed. In such situations, you need the plural. In other words, it is not every time you use singular verbs in the neither-nor structure. This is the reason the required answer for the homework question is ‘were’, not ‘was’:
Neither Akin nor the twins was present. (Wrong)
Neither Akin nor the twins were present. (Correct)
Proximity
As indicated by the above, the first instance we use plural verbs with ‘neither… nor’ is based on the principle of proximity. When the subject closest to the verb is singular, the verb is singular but when a plural subject is before the verb, the latter too has to be plural:
Neither Ade nor Bola is present. (Correct because ‘Bola’ is singular and closer to the verb.)
Neither Ade nor his sisters are present. (Here, it is the plural ‘sisters’ that governs the verb. So, it is wrong to retain ‘is’.)
Neither the sisters nor Ade is present. (Correct.) Neither the President nor the minister wants to address the issue. (Correct)
Neither the President nor the ministers want to address the issue. (Correct)
This means that you should always pay attention to the number of the noun closest to the verb.
Plural nouns
The second occasion the verb has to be plural is when both nouns connected by ‘neither’ and ‘nor’ are plural. So, automatically, the singular verb is eliminated:
Neither the boys nor the girls has arrived. (Wrong)
Neither the boys nor the girls have arrived. (Correct)
Neither the twins nor their brothers regularly attends the programme. (Wrong)
Neither the twins nor their brothers regularly attend the programme. (Correct)
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