You have to remember the SANAM modifiers,
SOME, ALL, NONE, ANY, MOST

These are five indefinite pronouns which can be either singular or plural depending on the context of the question. One should look at the object of the "of" construction to determine the number of the subject.

Some of the money was...
Some of the documents were...

In other words...."none" cant be plural. i has to be: "None of the cakes IS"??? it sounds weird...

Its just that in a flashcards that I downloaded it says that none can be plural when followed by a plural noun...

Simplyjat, I think that list of 5 words has some missing....for instance i can think of "a lot of"...you say "a lot of people are"....

cris wrote:In other words...."none" cant be plural. i has to be: "None of the cakes IS"??? it sounds weird...

Its just that in a flashcards that I downloaded it says that none can be plural when followed by a plural noun...

Simplyjat, I think that list of 5 words has some missing....for instance i can think of "a lot of"...you say "a lot of people are"....

I think you have misunderstood the concept of SANAM, all the indefinite pronouns listed can be both singular as well as plural....

So as per this rule
None of the cakes ARE....

Ah! ok :roll: I misunderstood it!

Thanks!

Looks like NONE is always singular.

Below example is from 1000 SC

765. The herbicide Oryzalin was still being produced in 1979, three years after the wives of workers producing the chemical in Rensselaer, New York, were found to have borne children with heart defects or miscarriages, and none of their pregnancies was normal.
(A) to have borne children with heart defects or miscarriages, and none of their pregnancies was
(B) to have had children born with heart defects or miscarriages, and none of the pregnancies was
(C) either to have had children with heart defects or miscarriages, without any of their pregnancies being
(D) either to have had miscarriages or to have borne children with heart defects; none of the pregnancies was
(E) either to have had miscarriages or children born with heart defects, without any of their pregnancies being

OA is D. Look at the construction. "was" is used for "None of the Pregnancies"

Manhattan says SANAM pronouns can be singular or plural but some how "NONE" alone doesn't fit in this.

Also check the following link
https://www.beatthegmat.com/sanam-pronouns-t17033.html

I have requested Stacey Koprince to help on this. Waiting for her reply.