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Giorgio
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Sat Mar 13, 2010 3:40 am

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As of this morning, none of my friends have been able to solve the puzzle contained in last week's newspaper.
(A) none of my friends have been able to solve
(B) none of my friends was able to solve
(C) not one of my friends has yet been able to solve
(D) none of my friends has been able to solve
(E) nobody among my friends have solved

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kstv
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Sat Mar 13, 2010 4:56 am

Choose (C) cos the sentence starts with As of this morning though a trifle wordy. Have in A and E is not correct. The event stated in the past and continues in present so Present Perfect Tense, not used in B. D is otherwise fine.

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Sat Mar 13, 2010 5:03 am

IMO D OA?

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Sat Mar 13, 2010 6:19 am

Not really sure about this one ... none of X .. verb should be plural when X is plural (not sure about this rule) As of this morning, none of my friends have been able to solve the puzzle contained in last week's newspaper. (A) none of my friends have been able to solve - Correct. (B) none of my friends was able to solve use of was - wrong tense - out (C) not one of my friends has yet been able to solve - none is better than "not one" - eliminated, also i think we should use have - out (D) none of my friends has been able to solve - i think we should use have , out (E) nobody among my friends have solved - have is incorrect, we should use has here.. hence out.

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Sat Mar 13, 2010 6:21 am

kstv wrote: Choose (C) cos the sentence starts with As of this morning though a trifle wordy. Have in A and E is not correct. The event stated in the past and continues in present so Present Perfect Tense, not used in B. D is otherwise fine. I think we can use either as of this morning OR yet, but not both.The non-underlined part has already used one of them. So, you cannot use the second one. Moreover, none of is more concise than not one of IMO D _________________ Regards, Harsha

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harshavardhanc
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Sat Mar 13, 2010 6:24 am

mohit11 wrote: Not really sure about this one ... none of X .. verb should be plural when X is plural (not sure about this rule) As of this morning, none of my friends have been able to solve the puzzle contained in last week's newspaper. (A) none of my friends have been able to solve - Correct. (B) none of my friends was able to solve use of was - wrong tense - out (C) not one of my friends has yet been able to solve - none is better than "not one" - eliminated, also i think we should use have - out (D) none of my friends has been able to solve - i think we should use have , out (E) nobody among my friends have solved - have is incorrect, we should use has here.. hence out. IPL match over, Mohit back to business Anyway, none of X is always singular. So, have is incorrect. _________________ Regards, Harsha

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mohit11
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Sat Mar 13, 2010 6:27 am

harshavardhanc wrote: mohit11 wrote: Not really sure about this one ... none of X .. verb should be plural when X is plural (not sure about this rule) As of this morning, none of my friends have been able to solve the puzzle contained in last week's newspaper. (A) none of my friends have been able to solve - Correct. (B) none of my friends was able to solve use of was - wrong tense - out (C) not one of my friends has yet been able to solve - none is better than "not one" - eliminated, also i think we should use have - out (D) none of my friends has been able to solve - i think we should use have , out (E) nobody among my friends have solved - have is incorrect, we should use has here.. hence out. IPL match over, Mohit back to business Anyway, none of X is always singular. So, have is incorrect. words such as none, any, all more, most, some may take either singular or plural verbs, depending on the context. ex: Some of the dollar was spent. Some of the dollars were spent. Source : http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/SubjectVerb.html I am right

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Sat Mar 13, 2010 6:48 am

Giorgio wrote: As of this morning, none of my friends have been able to solve the puzzle contained in last week's newspaper. (A) none of my friends have been able to solve (B) none of my friends was able to solve (C) not one of my friends has yet been able to solve (D) none of my friends has been able to solve (E) nobody among my friends have solved IMO D

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Sat Mar 13, 2010 7:02 am

mohit11 wrote: harshavardhanc wrote: mohit11 wrote: Not really sure about this one ... none of X .. verb should be plural when X is plural (not sure about this rule) As of this morning, none of my friends have been able to solve the puzzle contained in last week's newspaper. (A) none of my friends have been able to solve - Correct. (B) none of my friends was able to solve use of was - wrong tense - out (C) not one of my friends has yet been able to solve - none is better than "not one" - eliminated, also i think we should use have - out (D) none of my friends has been able to solve - i think we should use have , out (E) nobody among my friends have solved - have is incorrect, we should use has here.. hence out. IPL match over, Mohit back to business Anyway, none of X is always singular. So, have is incorrect. words such as none, any, all more, most, some may take either singular or plural verbs, depending on the context. ex: Some of the dollar was spent. Some of the dollars were spent. Source : http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/SubjectVerb.html I am right Thank you for mentioning that. That's the very reason I have posted this question, as per MGMAT SC book , None can take either singular or plural. We shall use OF PHRASE to determine singular or plural , in this question "None of my Friends " - Friends is plural , so my guess was to choose A as a correct answer, however OA is D! Would really appreciate to read some experts view on this issue.

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Sat Mar 13, 2010 7:04 am

mohit11 wrote: words such as none, any, all more, most, some may take either singular or plural verbs, depending on the context. ex: Some of the dollar was spent. Some of the dollars were spent. Source : http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/SubjectVerb.html I am right Thanks for correcting me! This is a very, very interesting topic to discuss on. Look at this : http://www.grammarmudge.cityslide.com/articles/article/1026513/9903.htm Acc to MGMAT, none is one of the SANAM pronouns ( the 5 indefinite pronouns: Some, Any, None, All and More/Most), which can either take singular / plural verbs depending on the context. The way to identify whether to take singular/plural verb is to look for the noun after of. If it is plural, the pronoun will take plural verb. Whereas, if the noun is singular the pronoun will take singular verb. However, the SC guide also says that : "technically, none of + plural noun can take either a singular or plural verb form". In our case the object of preposition/the noun after of is plural. Hence, have is correct. I agree with your answer now. _________________ Regards, Harsha

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Sun Mar 14, 2010 5:34 am

Experts your input required...... please

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lunarpower
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Mon Mar 15, 2010 5:30 pm

Giorgio wrote: As of this morning, none of my friends have been able to solve the puzzle contained in last week's newspaper. (A) none of my friends have been able to solve (B) none of my friends was able to solve (C) not one of my friends has yet been able to solve (D) none of my friends has been able to solve (E) nobody among my friends have solved here's the explanation in the original source: http://bit.ly/ahoIxk this is not good, though. -- first, the singular/plural status of "none" is a VERY controversial subject. clearly, "none" is singular in some circumstances, such as sentences in which the context makes it quite clear that a maximum of one person could have satisfied the stated conditions in the first place. for instance, james passed by over 200 women on the sidewalk, but none of them was his wife. in this instance, we clearly want "none" to be singular, since it's impossible for more than one woman to be james's wife. in other instances, however -- instances in which it's possible for multiple people/items to satisfy the stated conditions -- opinions are divided on whether "none" should be singular or plural. e.g. the museum owns a large number of valuable egyptian artifacts, but none of them is/are currently on display. in the above instance, available sources are very sharply divided on whether "none" should be singular or plural. is easy to find sources that declare that it should be singular; sources that declare that it should be plural; and sources that declare that either is all right. in the instance of a grammatical controversy such as this one, only one opinion ultimately matters in the end: the official opinion of the gmat. i'm not sure whether i have ever seen an official problem in which this issue is decided one way or the other. therefore, a call to the posters on this site: has any of the posters on this site ever seen an OFFICIAL problem that decides the "none" issue either way? without such official evidence, i can't make a good-faith declaration either way -- and neither can anyone else. -- second, it's apparent that whoever wrote this problem is ignorant of official gmat question-writing conventions, at least to some degree: this problem is written in the first person, which is NEVER used on official problems. (all official problems are written in the third person.) obviously, the first-person/third-person issue is not relevant to whether "none" is singular or plural, but it shows us that the author of the question is not necessarily committed to writing problems that mimic OFFICIAL problem-writing conventions. when problems cover grammatical issues that are controversial, that sort of thing can be dangerous. _________________ ron purewal instructor, mgmat Learn more about me

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Tue Mar 16, 2010 3:10 am

IMO D

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Tue Mar 16, 2010 6:50 am

Giorgio wrote: As of this morning, none of my friends have been able to solve the puzzle contained in last week's newspaper. (A) none of my friends have been able to solve (B) none of my friends was able to solve (C) not one of my friends has yet been able to solve (D) none of my friends has been able to solve (E) nobody among my friends have solved My pick is D - none is singular and D is most appropriate among the choices. _________________ I'm here to BTG

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Tue Mar 16, 2010 10:15 am

I am not convienced with the answer. 'None' is one of the SANAM (Manhattan terminology) word. As per the book, verb gets singular or plural form based on the noun after 'of'. In D we have friends so verb must be have and not has. Therefore, I still think that OA is A. lunarpower wrote: Giorgio wrote: As of this morning, none of my friends have been able to solve the puzzle contained in last week's newspaper. (A) none of my friends have been able to solve (B) none of my friends was able to solve (C) not one of my friends has yet been able to solve (D) none of my friends has been able to solve (E) nobody among my friends have solved here's the explanation in the original source: http://bit.ly/ahoIxk this is not good, though. -- first, the singular/plural status of "none" is a VERY controversial subject. clearly, "none" is singular in some circumstances, such as sentences in which the context makes it quite clear that a maximum of one person could have satisfied the stated conditions in the first place. for instance, james passed by over 200 women on the sidewalk, but none of them was his wife. in this instance, we clearly want "none" to be singular, since it's impossible for more than one woman to be james's wife. in other instances, however -- instances in which it's possible for multiple people/items to satisfy the stated conditions -- opinions are divided on whether "none" should be singular or plural. e.g. the museum owns a large number of valuable egyptian artifacts, but none of them is/are currently on display. in the above instance, available sources are very sharply divided on whether "none" should be singular or plural. is easy to find sources that declare that it should be singular; sources that declare that it should be plural; and sources that declare that either is all right. in the instance of a grammatical controversy such as this one, only one opinion ultimately matters in the end: the official opinion of the gmat. i'm not sure whether i have ever seen an official problem in which this issue is decided one way or the other. therefore, a call to the posters on this site: has any of the posters on this site ever seen an OFFICIAL problem that decides the "none" issue either way? without such official evidence, i can't make a good-faith declaration either way -- and neither can anyone else. -- second, it's apparent that whoever wrote this problem is ignorant of official gmat question-writing conventions, at least to some degree: this problem is written in the first person, which is NEVER used on official problems. (all official problems are written in the third person.) obviously, the first-person/third-person issue is not relevant to whether "none" is singular or plural, but it shows us that the author of the question is not necessarily committed to writing problems that mimic OFFICIAL problem-writing conventions. when problems cover grammatical issues that are controversial, that sort of thing can be dangerous.

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