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

Question

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

exc4libur · Answer

Neither X nor Y is the correct idiom and the verb agrees with the subject after nor: “his advisers” = plural.
 (C) is the answer.

gmatFalcon · Answer

Thanks exc4libur. I will start memorizing idioms

globaldesi · Answer

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.

deepverma · Answer

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

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Mpuneet · Answer

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

globaldesi · Answer

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

santorasantu · Answer

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

Abhishek009 · Answer

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..

manu11 · Answer

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

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Bunuel · Answer

_________________________________
Merging topics.

generis · Answer

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.

hiranmay · Answer

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

rebecca501 · Answer

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.

VerbalBot · Answer

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

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