Neither the candidate or his advisers knows of any reason for the

One error here is the incorrect use of "or" with the non-underlined "Neither." To be idiomatically correct, the sentence must use a neither … nor construction. (A), the sentence as written, is thus incorrect, and a vertical scan shows that (D) also incorrectly uses "or." Eliminate (D) as well.

This error is corrected in (B), (C), and (E). However, (B) and (E) create additional problems. The error in (B) stems from disagreement between subject and verb. In neither … nor constructions, the verb must agree with the noun that follows the word "nor." The correct answer should feature the verb "know" in order to agree with "advisers." (E) changes the meaning of the original sentence by changing the singular noun "candidate" to the plural "candidates."

(C) is correct because it uses "nor" and the correct verb "know," without introducing new mistakes.

TAKEAWAY: When a neither … nor phrase has a mix of singular and plural nouns, the verb takes its cue from the noun after the nor.

in option C "know of".. is it correct usage? I found it awkward so chose E.

Sent from my Redmi 5 Plus using GMAT Club Forum mobile app

Neither. ..nor so b c or e

Advisers and knows are not in agreement in b

E changes the meaning because of... of the candidates

So, c it is as per me.

C

Neither the candidate or his advisers knows of any reason for the recent change in public opinion.

a) the candidate or his advisers knows of any reason
b) the candidate nor his advisers knows any reason
c) the candidate nor his advisers know of any reason
d) the candidate or his advisers knows any reason
e) of the candidates nor his advisers know any reason

Idiom is Neither ..nor, so , A,D are out.

advisers is plural, so know should be used. B,D are out.

Correct answer is C

Either/Neither agrees with the closest subject , advisors in this Case, hence the Verb must be Plural.

Answer must be (C) for the highlighted errors in other options..

Neither the candidate or his advisers knows of any reason for the recent change in public opinion.

a) the candidate or his advisers knows of any reason
b) the candidate nor his advisers knows any reason
c) the candidate nor his advisers know of any reason
d) the candidate or his advisers knows any reason
e) of the candidates nor his advisers know any reason

When two subjects are connected by not only...but also; either...or, or neither...nor, the subject
which is closer to the verb determines whether the verb is singular or plural

In the above stmt, advisers is the closest subject to verb "Know". Hence C should be the answer

------------------------
Dont hesitate to Kudos if you like my post

_________________________________
Merging topics.

Why eliminate (E)?

SPLIT #1: subject/verb agreement

In the neither X nor Y construction, the noun closer to the verb determines the tense.

Correct: Neither that boy nor those girls have visited the museum.

Correct: Neither those girls nor that boy has visited the museum.

In A, B, and D, the singular verb knows does not agree with the plural noun advisors.

In addition, if neither is paired, then
neither must always be paired with nor and must never be paired with or.

These two constructions are the only correct versions:
Neither/nor
Either/or

We can eliminate A and D because they incorrectly pair neither with or.

Eliminate A, B, and D.

SPLIT #2: Pronoun problem

-- Both C and E have the correct verb tense for advisors.

-- But in (E) his (advisors) is ambiguous.
His (advisors) could refer to either of the two candidates.
That is, advisors of WHICH of the two candidates?
-- If (E) had used the word their, (E) would have been correct.

"of the" would have been fine with the word "their."

Eliminate E.

The answer is C.

Neither the candidate or his advisers knows of any reason for the recent change in public opinion.

A. the candidate or his advisers knows of any reason --> "neither ... nor" construction
B. the candidate nor his advisers knows any reason --> verb should agree with the nearest noun's number in "neither ... nor" construction
C. the candidate nor his advisers know of any reason --> correct
D. the candidate or his advisers knows any reason --> same as A
E. of the candidates nor his advisers know any reason --> "neither ... nor" construction violates parallelism

Neither X nor Y is the correct idiom. Therefore eliminate A and D.

There is also a subject verb agreement error - the subject advisers is plural and thus the verb knows should be changed to know. Eliminate B.

And lastly, the meaning is correctly reflected in answer choice C. The preposition of is misplaced in answer choice E.

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.