Sentence Correction

In one of the GMAT material i found the following:


A pronoun should be singular when it refers to two nouns joined by or or nor.

Incorrect: Neither Ricki nor Amy beleives they won the lottery.
Correct: Neither Ricki nor Amy believes she won the lottery.

First of all shouldn't the correct word be believe?

Secondly, in the case the two persons described, one was a male and the female how would it be constructed. to which of the two person should one refer to?

Neither John nor Marry believe ________ won the lottery

Hi Ashwin - The suitable verb in this construction is "believes"

Explanation: In "Neither ... Nor" constructions, verb should agree with the subject following "Nor".

Example: Neither his friends nor Joe IS going to the beach.

The same rule holds for "Either...or" and "Or" constructions.

Hello Ashwin,
First of all, either and neither can be used in several ways ; adverbs, determiners, pronouns and conjunction. Neither holds a negative significance. you will always find them being paired up this way as 'Either/or' and 'Neither/nor'. These are the ways you can find them in their respective use.

Subject Verb Argument
'Neither/nor' is used in a sentence in the negative sense when you want to say that two or more things are not true
for example,
Neither my mother nor my father went to University.
Neither John nor Mary believes she won the lottery. In the case, believes is the answer because both elements are singular.
Furthermore, it is important to know that in 'Neither/nor' usage, Verbs agree with the subject after 'nor'.
e.g Neither Tunde nor his friends believe him.
Neither she, my friends nor I am going to the festival