Quote:
Originally Posted by GirlySports
Boss hands me a spreadsheet
"Which of these items are yours?"
"None of them are mine"
He nods.
He hands me another spreadsheet
"Which of these items aren't yours"?
"None of them aren't mine"
He looks at me funny.
--
Why is my second answer wrong? I used exact same structure as my first answer.
|
Both are grammatically incorrect. The second one has been explained above. The first has incorrect subject/verb agreement; 'none' is singular, thus you should have responded, "none of them is mine." Now an interesting question is whether your boss was correct or incorrect; can 'which' be both singular and plural? 'Which ones?' presumably could have a plural answer. I tend to think 'which' can be both singular and plural (like 'you'), and thus "which is" and "which are" can each be correct depending on the context.