Guys, am I blind or is it Kaplan's error ?

[S0laris]

this morning I started The sentece correction by Kaplan GMAT800, 2007-2008, page 135(Higher Score Guaranteed)
previously I finished Princeton and Manhattan, so what I've found:

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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. (doesn't matter)
C. (doesn't matter)
D. none of my friends have been able to solve
E. (doesn't matter)
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Kaplan says that the right answer is D because of the "none", which is considered as singular pronoun.
However, I exactly remember from Manhattan that there is a list of exemption pronouns, Some_Any_None_All_Most, and one should pay attention to "of" construction when SANAM appears, thus if noun after "SANAM of..... + noun" is plural the verb must also be in plural and vice versa.

Actually, I've called to my friend, who is eng teacher from California, and he said that the correct answer is A(plural)

So, any proposals or comments on this ?

[S0laris]

Here is the explanation:
------------------------
David Hughes
to me

show details 3:01 PM (21 minutes ago)

Reply

Oleg -

As soon as I hung up I realized that I had made a mistake, which is one reason why these things are better done by email - more time to think clearly.

None of my friends has been able to solve the riddle.

None in this sentence stands for "Not a single one of", and thus the correct form is actually "has", as in "one has".

But, the caveat, more and more in English it is considered acceptable to do this type of construction by sound, that is, if is sounds correct you can use it as correct. "Have" actually sounds better, as it would be the correct form of the verb if "friends" was the subject. So you can actually do this one either way. In spoken language most Americans will use "have", but the grammar books will tell you "has".

Some have
All have
None has
Most have

Any can go either way:
If any of your friends is/are interested, let me know. "Is" is more formal; "are" would always be used in spoken English.



David

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[/quote]

[S0laris]

ha ha, seems like Manhattan pays back fot its guidelines in SC-book )

https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/usa ... t4375.html

[karmayogi]

Ops! my flash card shows:

No one - always singular
None - depends on the context

I need to change it now. No one as well as none both are singular.

[nasa]

Karma,
Do not change your flash cards!
Refer to
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/none[1]
None can be singular or plural depending upon construction.

SANAM rules from MGMAT SC still holds good.

[Nailya]

Even though MGMAT SC guide says that "none of" can be singular or plural depending on what follows the OF, the OG11 uses singular verb form.

This is the example from the OG11, Sentence Correction, question 17:

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 have.

None of the attempts - according to MGMAT must be plural
BUT: explains - singular verb form.
Note that this is non-underlined portion of the text, therefore should be correct.