Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[tisogai]

Please check the sentence below;

It is a pity that none of my collegues were able to attend my lecture.

Is it supposed to be "was"??

Thanks.

[CP]

I was taught that "none" is the same as "not one," so the singular form of the verb is used. None of my colleagues was able to attend my lecture. Not one was there.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[buddhaheart]

�None� is short for �not one; no one� but also used as �not any�. Depending on the context, it can take a singular or plural verb.

Examine the example �There is none left.� If the context is I need another red pencil but not one is available, the singular verb makes sense. In �None of us are grammarians�, the plural verb makes sense as �none of us� here means �not any of us�. The plural sense (all of us) is implied.

The indefinite pronoun is actually used as a plural subject more often than not. To the purist & strict theorist, this sounds odd and unsettling. Well, the English language, like any other isn�t really an exact science.In your question, the plural sense is implied and therefore �were� is quite acceptable (IMO).

To add confusion, here�re some more lexicon examples:

�None have (has) arrived yet.�
�There is none of it left.�
�None of the apples are rotten.�

I might suggest if we couldn�t decide, we should abandon & banish this word altogether from the language and use other more definite terms. In your case, it would be easy to re-write the sentence as �... all of my colleagues were unable ...�