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To: rockprof
"Virtually none of my students (high school graduates all) have any competency in even simple grade-school mathematics".

"None has" professor not "none have" Perhaps a little remedial English?

The word "none" is a contraction of the words "no one". Read it that way and it makes sense.
31 posted on 07/27/2003 5:30:27 PM PDT by Graybeard58
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To: Graybeard58
"None has" professor not "none have" Perhaps a little remedial English?

Do you want to rethink that?

37 posted on 07/27/2003 6:58:18 PM PDT by MARTIAL MONK
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To: Graybeard58
I wrote:

"Virtually none of my students (high school graduates all) have any competency in even simple grade-school mathematics.

Graybeard58 wrote in reply:

"None has" professor not "none have" Perhaps a little remedial English?
The word "none" is a contraction of the words "no one". Read it that way and it makes sense."

Read the following excerpt from Montgomery & Stratton, 1981, The Writer's Hotline Handbook: A Guide to Good Usage and Effective Writing, Mentor, Pg 52.

"The third class of indefinites includes only none. Because the word originated from the words not one, a few grammarians still insist that it should take only a singular verb. Most grammarians, however, rely on modern idiomatic usage and other criteria for determining whether a word is singular or plural, and these grammarians explain that none is more often plural than singular."

"None should be handled in the same way as any of the indefinites in the second class above, which can be either singular or plural..."

I never understand pedants who scour bulletin boards to look for grammatical mistakes in other people's posts. They also feel the need to throw in an insult as well ("Perhaps a little remedial English"). Since your criticism was incorrect, perhaps you're the one who needs the remedial English course?

44 posted on 07/28/2003 7:29:40 AM PDT by rockprof
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