Everyone in the room were singing but her. a) Everyone

Question

Everyone in the room were singing but her. 

a) Everyone in the room were singing but her. 
b) Everyone in the room was singing but she. 
c) Everyone was singing in the room but her. 
d) Everyone in the room was singing but her.
e) Each one in the room was singing but she.

mbamantra · Answer

B

singular is required for everyone, 'she' in the end is a must coz parallalism. (noun-noun)

chunjuwu · Answer

B it is. 

Everyone is the subjective, so we need 'she' for parallelism. 

Everyone mean 'all'; each one means 'one'.

Vithal · Answer

Check out the below link:

https://businessmajors.about.com/cs/quiz ... Correc.htm

I think it all the questions are easy - but strange that even I marked it as B (incorrect??)

Here is the OE:

Two errors: (i) pronoun everyone takes a singular verb was (ii) the word but in this sentence acts as a preposition and not a conjunction. Hence but will be followed by an objective case pronoun (such as me, him, her, us or them). Choice 3 alters the meaning of the given sentence.

FN · Answer

D is correct...not B!

everyone in the room was singing but her...

jpv · Answer

Nice question. I also choose (B)

I was aware of the trap. I think there is a problem :

If we want "but" as Preposition then this should be correct sentence:
Everyone  but her  in the room was singing.
Here "her" is the object of the Preposition. 

In the given question, I took "but" as Conjunction with Ellipsis.
Everyone in the room was singing but she  (was not singing) .

Am I correct? Please comment.

chunjuwu · Answer

Nice question, here is the note about 'but'. 

Traditional grammarians have worried over what form the pronoun ought to take when but is used to indicate an exception in sentences such as No one but I (or No one but me) has read it. Some have argued that but is a conjunction in these sentences and therefore should be followed by the nominative form I. However,  many of these grammarians have gone on to argue somewhat inconsistently that the accusative form me is appropriate when the but phrase occurs at the end of a sentence , as in  No one has read it but me . While this treatment of the construction has a considerable weight of precedent on its side and cannot be regarded as incorrect, a strong case can be made on grammatical grounds for treating this use of but as a preposition. For one thing,  if but were truly a conjunction here, we would expect the verb  to agree in person and number with the noun or pronoun following but; we would then say No one but the students have read it. What is more, if  but were a true conjunction here we would not expect that it could be moved to the end of a clause, as in No one has read it but the students . Note that we cannot use the conjunction and in a similar way, saying John left and everyone else in the class in place of John and everyone else in the class left.  These observations suggest that but is best considered as a preposition here  and followed by accusative forms such as me and them in all positions: No one but me has read it. No one has read it but me.

Vithal · Answer

but chunjuwu, your post seems to suggest that the sentence should be ending in she. The correct answer however is D (ending in her)

Vithal · Answer

I have already posted the OE (refer to my previous post)

jpv · Answer

Excelllent Post :cool . Thanks chunjuwu.. It should go to my notes.

Vithal! It is mentioned in the last. "but" will be considered a preposition here and thus will require objective form.
 So both are correct: 
Everyone in the room was singing  but her .
Everyone  but her  in the room was singing.

Everyone in the room were singing but her. a) Everyone

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