were/was ?

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GmatKiss: Legendary Member; Posts: 2789; Joined: Tue Jul 26, 2011 12:19 am; Location: Chennai, India; Thanked: 206 times; Followed by:43 members; GMAT Score:640

were/was ?

by GmatKiss » Fri Sep 02, 2011 11:35 am

Neither the passengers nor the driver were hurt.
Neither the passengers nor the driver was hurt.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Fri Sep 02, 2011 11:35 am

gmatblood: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 489; Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2011 11:10 am; Thanked: 28 times; Followed by:5 members

by gmatblood » Fri Sep 02, 2011 12:09 pm

GmatKiss wrote:Neither the passengers nor the driver were hurt.
Neither the passengers nor the driver was hurt.

was

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force5: Legendary Member; Posts: 582; Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2011 12:48 am; Thanked: 61 times; Followed by:6 members; GMAT Score:740

by force5 » Fri Sep 02, 2011 12:12 pm

Remember

neither..nor

either...or

keep verb according to second noun.

Example:
neither student nor teachers were hurt.
neither teachers nor student was hurt.

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n@resh: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 61; Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2010 3:29 am; Thanked: 8 times

by n@resh » Fri Sep 02, 2011 12:14 pm

GmatKiss wrote:Neither the passengers nor the driver were hurt.
Neither the passengers nor the driver was hurt.

Here the verb agrees with the subject that follows nor.
Hence, Neither the passengers nor the driver was hurt.

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crick: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 125; Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 6:11 pm; Thanked: 8 times

by crick » Sat Sep 03, 2011 7:19 am

Neither/nor; Either/or=> Follow the number of the noun closest to them.

If neither/either are present by themselves(no correlative nor/or) they are singular. Example

Neither of the passengers is hurt.
Either of the two books is fine.

Crick