Sentence Correction

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

That's correct. However, what's your explanation?

Apparently, "none" is supposed to be singular. However, according to MGMAT, "none" is part of the SANAM pronouns, which means that technically the verb should be plural because of "friends." In this case, the answer would be A.

Can anyone clarify as I'm sure I'm not the only one who is slightly confused?

Thanks!

pkw209 wrote:That's correct. However, what's your explanation?

Apparently, "none" is supposed to be singular. However, according to MGMAT, "none" is part of the SANAM pronouns, which means that technically the verb should be plural because of "friends." In this case, the answer would be A.

Can anyone clarify as I'm sure I'm not the only one who is slightly confused?

Thanks!

This question seems that have a problem in selecting answers which are presented by giving students to
simultaneously choose between a) and d). To me, both two answers seems correct answers.
Therefore, I particularly assumed that kaplan mistakenly put d) in there, which might be originally supposed to be
quoted as d) none of my friend has. If so, we can easily find the answer a).
It's just my opinion.

Thanks for the response. This question was taken directly from a Kaplan 800 book and the official answer is D.

I think it has to be one or the other - it can't be both singular and plural.

I just don't understand why there are two rules for the same word...and of course the most puzzling part about this is that no one knows which version is correct.

The level of ambiguity in some aspects of sentence correction really defeats the purpose of this test.

pkw209 wrote:Thanks for the response. This question was taken directly from a Kaplan 800 book and the official answer is D.

I think it has to be one or the other - it can't be both singular and plural.

I just don't understand why there are two rules for the same word...and of course the most puzzling part about this is that no one knows which version is correct.

The level of ambiguity in some aspects of sentence correction really defeats the purpose of this test.

I have to buy Kaplan 800 as fast as I could. Kaplan's verbal workbook is already done, but I didn't attack that book which many beatthegmat people quoted. Anyway, hope you to succeed in getting the target score.

Thanks, good luck to you too.

Can anyone clarify the answer to this question?

Since None is singular in this case ans should be D..

Why is "none" singular in this case? According to MGMAT none depends on the "of" construction...

pkw209 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

It has to be A...ur rite.
MGMAT strictly follows GMAT pattern and cannot go wrong. I doubt on Kaplan. On a number of occasion I have seen queries posted from Kaplan have drawn too much of attention for nothing but wrong..

Guys can any 1 please explain "As of this morning" means till this morning. 'Has' is used if activity is continuing in present.
So shouldn't we use 'has' over here??

What about E
Here no ambiguity like none.
None can be used as a singular or plural.

Indeed, the SANAM words can take either singular or plural verbs, depending on the context. From a language perspective, none should always be singular ("Not one of my friends is coming"), but the word has broken down so much, that the official rules have been changed. Now, you are forced to look at it as a kind of compound noun "none of my friends", with an understanding that there was an expectation of multiple people coming, therefore multiple people must not have shown up.

I am also really getting confused now.

Initially, I learnt that NONE might be singular or plural depending on context.

NONE of <Plural Subject> <Plural Verb> + ...
NONE of <Singular Subject> <Singular Verb> + ...

NONE takes singular verb when it mean NOT ONE. This I learnt from Grammar Book.

Latter on, I found same thing in Manhattan GMAT SC Guide. But today I confused when I saw in Kaplan.

Kaplan uses singular verb(in above post). I don't understand. Why?

I saw one more example in OG Review 12th Ed, Problem No 22
None of the attempts to specify the causes of crime explains why most of the people exposed to the alleged causes do not commit crimes and, conversely, why so many of those not so exposed do.

This is correct sentence as per OG but they have treated "None of the attempts" as Singular. However, I have noticed in OG 12th Ed that They have used singular / plural both verb for NONE of <plural subject>.

NONE takes singular verb according to => https://www.thefreedictionary.com/none

Explanation of NONE at https://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/subjectVerbAgree.asp is same as Manhattan GMAT.

why B is wrong ?

'as of this morning' seems to indicate the past event.
so 'was' should be the right choice instead of 'has'