Which is correct, "neither is" or "neither are"?
Bob: "Can I set the font color? Can I customize the text?"
Frank: "Neither of these options is available. Sorry!"
Is "neither is" always correct or should one use "neither are" in some cases and what are the exact rules? I tried the googles and found a big mess of this-is-why-stackexchange-exists :P
Solution 1:
In formal usage, it should definitely be is:
Neither of these options is available.
This is the traditional rule (iirc, Fowler’s discusses this at length). However, in colloquial usage, either option is fine, and are seems to now be somewhat more common, at least on teh internets. A commenter here nicely describes the sort of thought process which probably pushes people (usually subconsciously) towards using are:
I wanted to say that “neither of us are cardplayers”, but I know that in that case, I should use “is”. But I also can’t say “neither of us is cardplayers”. So perhaps I should say “neither of us is a cardplayer” which sounds ridiculous to me. Is the conclusion that, in situations like this, one should reconstruct the sentence entirely. So I should really say something like “we aren’t cardplayers”. Fine when you’re writing, but how do you avoid getting into a tangle when talking!!
FWIW, “neither of us is a cardplayer” and “neither of us are cardplayers” both sound absolutely fine to my ear.
I don’t have time at the moment, but if someone else is in the mood for some corpus or n-gram searching (or can find someone who’s already done the research), it would be very interesting to know the history of this. Is the current shift to neither … are a real phenomenon, or is this just recency illusion?
Solution 2:
I thought I'd add something to what has already been said in @PLL's answer. Merriam Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, which I like for its descriptive style and useful examples, has this to say about neither:
The reason it is sometimes plural is easy to see when you think about it. Neither serves as the negative counterpart of either, which is usually singular. But it also serves in the same way for both, which is usually plural.
The reason it seems more natural to use the plural verb to negate two choices is that we want to negate both choices, and not just one of them. For example, it may seem more natural to say, "Neither of these colours suit me" and "Neither yellow nor orange suits me".
It also says:
The singular number of neither is most likely to be ignored when it is followed by of and a plural noun or pronoun, for then both notional agreement and the principle of proximity pull in the direction of a plural verb.
It gives numerous examples of neither taking a plural verb:
- Thersite's body is as good as Ajax'/When neither are alive--Shakespeare, Cymbeline, 1610
- Neither belong to this Saxon's company--Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe, 1819
- He had two job offers, but neither were ones he felt he could accept--Diana Diamond, N.Y. Times, 1974
In conclusion, it says this:
The pronoun neither, then, is not invariably singular, though it is more often so. When formal agreement obtains, it takes a singular verb. When notional agreement obtains, it takes either a singular or plural verb. These constructions are neither nonstandard or [sic] erroneous. If you are writing something in a highly formal style, you will probably want to use formal agreement throughout. Otherwise, follow your own inclination in choosing singular or plural constructions after neither.
Solution 3:
Despite what Fowler said, partitive constructions with neither seem to have taken mostly plural agreement until some time in the 1800s, as can be seen with the graphs for neither of them and neither of us. But it does seems that singular agreement is most common today.
Neither of them is/are
Neither of us is/are
