Either or or nor is correct

When faced with having to choose between or and nor, the writer for Yahoo! Sports‘ “Prep Rally” picked the wrong word:

The pairs neither…nor and either… or are correlative conjunctions. Don’t mix ‘em up.

Neither writer nor editor was correct

Neither the writer nor the editor (if there was one) was correct when choosing the verb for an article on Yahoo! Music:

When the subject of a sentence is joined by neither…nor, the verb always agrees with the noun (or pronoun) closer to it.

Neither the writer nor the editor wants credit

Neither the writer nor the editor wants credit for this grammatical gaffe on the Yahoo! front page-+:

In a  sentence with a compound subject joined by neither…nor, the verb must agree with the noun closer to it

Neither were nor are is correct

The grammatical rule is quite simple, but it’s often broken by Yahoo!’s writers and editors. For some reason the senior editor for Yahoo! Shine just can’t remember it:

When the subject of a verb is joined by the correlative conjunction neither…nor, the verb agrees with the noun closer to it. In this case, the verb should agree in number and person (don’t you love when I get all grammary on you?) with Ashley and should be was prepared.

If neither is right, or is wrong

I’m still astounded whenever I read a mismatched correlative conjunction. Just where was the editor when this showed up on Yahoo! TV‘s “Primetime in No Time”?

The correct partner for neither is nor, not or.

Neither McGinniss nor Random House is plural

Neither the writer nor the editor has corrected this mistake on Yahoo! News:

When a compound subject is joined by the correlative conjunction neither… nor, the verb must agree with the noun closer to it. In this case, it’s Random House, which is considered singular in the U.S.

Either neither is wrong or or is wrong

Neither the writer nor the editor recognized this error on Yahoo! Shine:

After you appraise it, apprise the writer

One verb, two goofs. How is that possible? To start with, the verb in this excerpt from Yahoo! Shine should be singular:

When the subject of the verb is joined by the correlative conjunction neither…nor, the verb must agree in number and person with the noun closer to it. The more glaring error is the use of appraised instead of apprised. They are really very different.

After you appraise this snippet, can you apprise the writer of your findings?

Briefcases filled of cash?

The Yahoo! News blog makes more than its usual shares of errors.

I’m pretty sure that Jim McGreevey was governor of New Jersey. But when was Terry Sanford ever governor of South Carolina?

Terry Sanford was a governor, but of North Carolina, not South Carolina. He died in 1998, so I can’t imagine what troubles are still swirling around him. Could the writer have meant the governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford?

I can neither confirm nor deny that the writer thought that or can be paired with neither: 

You could offer me briefcases filled with cash, and I still couldn’t tell you why the writer made these mistakes (though I might make something up!):

So, when the writer isn’t making typos and omitting an apostrophe in a possessive, he’s omitting a word here:

and using the wrong word here:

(And I don’t care if those briefcases are filled with 1s or 100s.)

Neither was correct

Neither the writer nor the editor was correct in choosing the verb in this sentence on Yahoo! Movies:

When a compound subject is joined by the correlative conjunction neither…nor, the verb must agree with the subject closer to it.