Neither of my aunts, both of whom visited Venice last spring

Also they visited last spring so simple past is correct.

Hi,

Present perfect is used for action completed just now or actions whose effects are still being felt. So here simple past is correct. The aunts visited Venice last spring. Spring is not the season prevailing otherwise last would not be mentioned. Whether they returned form Venice is immaterial as we are taking about just their visit.
Hope it helps.

daagh
genesis

The best rated post in this Topic says '1. Neither of my aunts = None of .... ==> ALWAYS Singular in GMAT'
While the official S/V thread says:

Most of the indefinite pronouns are considered singular except for SANAM pronouns

SANAM: Some, all, none, any, most.
In case of SANAM pronoun, it can be singular or plural depending on the context of the sentence.
e.g. Some of the students are in the class.
e.g. Some of the water is in the glass.

Can one of you shed light on what is considered a 'hard rule' for the GMAT?

Many thanks

A X want is plural…needs singular
B X Have is bad tense, needs past tense "visited"
C B X Have is bad tense, needs past tense "visited"
D CORRECT
E B X Have is bad tense, needs past tense "visited"

Hello DmitryFarber AjiteshArun GMATNinja genesis

Hope you all are doing well.

I have the same exact doubt regarding the usage of SANAM pronouns.

My understanding until now has been that the subject-verb agreement in case of SANAM pronouns will be contextual.

I studied from the MGMAT SC guide :

SANAM: Some, all, none, any, most.
In case of SANAM pronoun, it can be singular or plural depending on the context of the sentence.
e.g. Some of the students are in the class.
e.g. Some of the water is in the glass.

In our question at hand, we have "Neither of my AUNTS want(s)". Depending on the plurality of the noun after "OF" (which in our case is plural aunts), we decide the plurality of the verb.

So I chose option A.

Is it because EITHER/NEITHER are not SANAM pronouns ? I guess I am confusing "Neither" with "None", which is a SANAM pronoun. I do recall that "Either" is always singular. Makes sense for the same to be applicable to "Neither".


Could you please shed light on this doubt?

Thank you in advance.

Regards,
Saakhi

Hi Saasingh,

Here's what I think about those constructions:
1. Neither of + [plural noun]: go singular.
2. None of + [plural noun]: go singular.

It's important to recognize that the points we're looking at here do not have one "correct" answer. Many people (including me) go plural on neither of + [plural noun] all the time. It's just that I wouldn't recommend doing that on the GMAT. I think the sources you're using would not have a problem with (1), but (2) could be the opposite of what you've read. The problem is that there is no consensus on such issues.

Adding to Ajitesh's point, since the usage of none is a debatable topic, GMAT is very unlikely to test you on this.

There is an instance of the usage of none in the following official sentence that uses singular verb explains with none.

None of the attempts to specify the causes of crime explains why most of the people exposed to the alleged causes do not commit crimes and, conversely, why so many of those not so exposed do.

So, while this might give us a clue, note that this is not in the underlined portion and hence, not tested.

Saasingh
Ah yes, everyone who takes our tests hates this question, but it's fair! I just hope "neither" is tested often enough on the real GMAT to justify all this suffering!

The thing with "neither" is that unlike "none" and the other SANAM pronouns, it always means the same thing. Any time with say "neither," we are saying "not either" of two options. Even if we were to say "Neither aunt," we'd mean neither of the two aunts. There is no other way to use it, so it is always singular, as if we said "neither one."

Thank you for clarifying.

Regards,
Saakhi

After reading through the question, "want" stood out to me.

Quickly glanced through the options to see the split "have/had/visited" and "want/wants"


"have visited" when used with "last spring" is incorrect"

"last spring" seems to be telling us that this activity happened in the past. Then "have visited" incorrectly adds a perfect tense to the statement.

Eliminate Option (B) and (E)

"had visited" does not seem inherently wrong but seems redundant when we already have "last spring" to indicate when the action occured.

Eliminate (C)


Now between Option (A) and (D),

I was not sure what verb form "Neither" needed. So I used process of elimination instead.

SANAM(= some, any, none, all, more/most) can take any form (singular or plural). "Neither" is not a part of this so no worries.

My acronym FBMS (few, both, many, some) for words that are always plural. "Neither" not a part of that either.

So clearly "Neither" takes singular form.

Eliminate Option (A)

Option (D) is the answer!

Neither... followed... wants... so Abc gone....
Have is wrong for the same sv agreement reason...
E is the only option...

Posted from my mobile device