The press secretary announced that neither himself nor the

Question

The press secretary announced that  neither himself nor the president would be   available for questions until they had had more time to examine the report

A) neither himself nor the President would be
B) neither he or the President was
C) neither he nor the President would be
D) he and the President will not be
E) he not the President would be

saurabhmalpani · Answer

I will pick. Read Like this: remove everything in between n check. The press secretary announced that himself would be available for questions until they had had more time to examine the report. DON'T PICK ON THE SINGULAR PLURAL PLEASE :lol:

Does "himself" sounds rt? I don't think so replace it with HE. i GUESS SENTENCE MAKE MORE SENSE IF U READ IT WITH HE. I HOPE THAT HELPS. Thanks Saurabh Malpani

nocilis · Answer

Let me try this one:

A) neither himself nor the President would be 
I have no doubt that the use of the reflexive pronoun 'himself' here is wrong.

B) neither he or the President was 
neither goes with nor

C) neither he nor the President would be 
Possible answer. 
But I am not convinced with this one, as the third person plural pronoun 'they' now refers to a singular noun he/president.
I have some doubts about my justification though. If you think I am wrong, please clarify.

D) he and the President will not be
As much as I don't like this one. They clearly refers to the plural noun he and the president. This is at least grammatically right.
 
E) he not the President would be
the use of 'he not the president is ackward'

praveen_rao7 · Answer

C as well.

The reflexive pronouns such as himself indicate that the sentence subject also receives the action of the verb. Personal pronoun He is more approprisate here.

foraj · Answer

go with D. They later in the sentence needs a plural subject.

nocilis · Answer

I think I got it wrong in my earlier posting because I was confused about the use of 'they'

Here is the explanation:

The pronoun does not act like a verb, in that it does not need "and" to COMBINE two singular nouns/pronouns to form a plural verb.
If I simply say, "Jane went to the store. Susan went
also. They met at the store" you can see that the pronoun "they" refers
to both girls although they are in entirely separate sentences. This
cannot happen with 2 subjects and a verb. 

So saying  'neither he nor the President  would be available for questions until  they  had had more time to examine the report '
is entirely accurate.

So C it is
This question is from Barrons and key says C too. I see no explanation for the answer though. 
Hope my answer is convincing enough.

The press secretary announced that neither himself nor the

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