5
   

None of them have

 
 
Din1
 
Reply Wed 22 Oct, 2014 12:23 pm
They don't have smartphones.

None of them have smartphones.
None of them has smartphones.
What sentence do you thinks is correct?
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Type: Question • Score: 5 • Views: 686 • Replies: 7
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Lordyaswas
 
  2  
Reply Wed 22 Oct, 2014 12:27 pm
@Din1,
1. OK
2. OK
3. Wrong.
Another option:
4. None of them has a smartphone

Smartphone = has a
Smartphones = have.
Ragman
 
  1  
Reply Wed 22 Oct, 2014 12:33 pm
@Lordyaswas,
None of them is a smartass
0 Replies
 
dalehileman
 
  1  
Reply Wed 22 Oct, 2014 01:07 pm
@Din1,
Din we were always taught "none is" on the basis that "none" means "no one"

…but things are changing
ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Wed 22 Oct, 2014 01:17 pm
@dalehileman,
I have a few old grammar books, and the one I'm looking at, Harbrace Handbook of English, 1959, says this: None is plural or singular according to the meaning of the sentence.

RIGHT None are so blind as those who will not see.
RIGHT None is so blind as he who will not see.


That was probably what it said in the 1941 edition as well.

dalehileman
 
  0  
Reply Wed 22 Oct, 2014 01:33 pm
@ossobuco,
I guess "are" is okay now

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=none+is+v+none+are

I must show my age
contrex
 
  2  
Reply Wed 22 Oct, 2014 01:50 pm
@dalehileman,
dalehileman wrote:
I guess "are" is okay now

It has been OK for a long time. Usage note from Oxford Dictionaries:

It is sometimes held that none can only take a singular verb, never a plural verb: none of them is coming tonight rather than none of them are coming tonight. There is little justification, historical or grammatical, for this view. None is descended from Old English nān meaning ‘not one’ and has been used for around a thousand years with both a singular and a plural verb, depending on the context and the emphasis needed.
ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Wed 22 Oct, 2014 01:58 pm
@contrex,
That's what I figured, but I didn't want to chase it further.
0 Replies
 
 

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