Indefinite pronouns such as everyone and everybody are always singular and take a singular verb.
Everyone is responsible for this project. Each of the students is required to bring a pair of gloves for art class tomorrow. For pronouns like all and some, verbs that accompany them will be determined by whether they are referring to something that is countable or not. Some of the students in the group have eaten already. Some of the furniture was destroy in the fire. Either and neither appear as lone subjects. Even though they seem to be joining two things. Neither of the shirts looks good on him. However, when either or neither is used as a correlative conjunction, the subject that is closer to the verb will determine if the verb is singular or plural. Neither the teacher nor the students are in class. Neither the students nor the teacher is in class. The number (plural or singular) of the verb depends whether you are referring to the noun collectively as a unit, or as individual participants in the group. Group nouns are usually singular, but can be used with a singular or a plural verb. The audience are laughing. The audience is laughing. My family comes from Australia. My family come from Australia. The band are playing. The band is playing. |
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