Grammar Filter:

March 19, 2005 12:48 PM

Which statement is correct? Does either of you recognize this person? Do either of you recognize this person?

I thought it's "does" because "either" is singular, but it just doesn't sound right when I say it that way. Which is right?

posted by pelican to Writing & Language (19 answers total)

Response by poster: and of course, as soon as I posted it, it occurred to me that neither are statements, but questions... I should have said, "which question is grammatically correct?"

my apologies.
posted by pelican at 12:50 PM on March 19, 2005

Both are correct. Either is singular AND plural.
posted by maschnitz at 12:58 PM on March 19, 2005

Best answer: Well, "either" in this context is really an abbreviated idiom for "either or both", so with that plural sense in mind "do either..." would be acceptable. If you were to say "Does one or the other of you..." the singular would be required.
posted by nicwolff at 1:02 PM on March 19, 2005

For another similar construction, if you were addressing more than two people you'd say "Do any of you..." meaning, as you do by "either" in your example, "one or more", and therefore pluralizing "do".
posted by nicwolff at 1:11 PM on March 19, 2005

Best answer: it's do always, as far as i can see. if it were singlular would be "do you recognise" and if it were plural it would be "do both of you recognise". "does" is for the third person singlular ("does he recognise"), and you don't have "he" (or "she") in your sentence.
posted by andrew cooke at 1:34 PM on March 19, 2005

I thought it's "does" because "either" is singular,

If you were speaking to one person, would you say "does you recognize.."? "do" is correct.
posted by mdn at 2:21 PM on March 19, 2005

Usage Note: The traditional rule holds that either should be used only to refer to one of two items and that any is required when more than two items are involved: Any (not either) of the three opposition candidates still in the race would make a better president than the incumbent. But reputable writers have often violated this rule, and in any case it applies only to the use of either as a pronoun or an adjective.


Since either refers to one of two items, it should be singular.
posted by aberrant at 3:46 PM on March 19, 2005

More here:


either with singular or plural verb. When used as a pronoun, either is normally singular and takes a singular verb: The two surgeons disagree with each other more than either does (not do) with the pathologist. But when either is followed by of and a plural noun, it is often used with a plural verb: Either of the parties have enough support to form a government. As frequent as this usage may be, it is widely regarded as incorrect. Ninety-two percent of the Usage Panel rejected it in an earlier survey.

posted by aberrant at 3:47 PM on March 19, 2005

again: both the singular and plural forms of do for the second person are "do". so singular or plural makes no difference in this case.
posted by andrew cooke at 4:25 PM on March 19, 2005

again: both the singular and plural forms of do for the second person are "do". so singular or plural makes no difference in this case.

That's incorrect. "Either" stands in for "either one" or more fully, "either one or the other." i.e., "Does either one or the other of you want to accompany me to the dance?"

http://www.bartleby.com/64/C001/026.html

"either … or and verb agreement. When all the elements in an either … or construction (or a neither … nor construction) used as the subject of a sentence are singular, the verb is singular: Either Eve or Herb has been invited."
posted by ludwig_van at 5:26 PM on March 19, 2005

Yes, the answer marked as best is wrong, it's "Does." Either is treated as singular third person, like "either one".
posted by knave at 5:45 PM on March 19, 2005

the phrase "either one of you" doesn't even appear on the link you give in support. since when do words "stand for" other words? it's not an abbreviation - it's a word in and of itself. the only thing your link says is that the verb should be singular and, YET AGAIN, the singular of you for the second person is "do", like the plural.
posted by andrew cooke at 5:56 PM on March 19, 2005

bah, singular of "do".
posted by andrew cooke at 5:56 PM on March 19, 2005

Best answer: Oh my heavens. I teach English and this makes my head spin. Might have something to do with today being Saturday, though.

I'll just casually mention that the school marm tone of this conversation has something to do with the fact that you're asking a school marm question. Which is correct? The one that sounds correct. English is a descriptive language (as opposed to a prescriptive language, like French). There's no English Academy laying down the official rules of English grammar. It's all a question of what's commonly accepted. Which is why the rules of grammar, spelling, and usage differ slightly from publication to publication.

In most of our ballot questions we ask the panelists whether they find a particular word or construction to be acceptable or not in formal Standard English. By this we mean not whether the panelists would use a particular usage in their own writing but whether the panelists find that the usage violates some notion of propriety that they consider inherent to formal Standard English. We realize that there are many shades of acceptability. What one panelist approves enthusiastically, another may accept only grudgingly. But in surveys of this kind, it is not practical to differentiate degrees of approval or disapproval. For certain controversial usages we add to the question the option of indicating acceptability in informal contexts. Sometimes we ask panelists to indicate their own preferences or to provide alternative ways of saying something.

  Acceptability is thus not really a matter of grammaticality but rather a broader notion of appropriateness.
(From The American Heritage Book of English Usage linked to above.)

Split the infinitive; end your sentence with a preposition; start it with a conjunction; use "do either of you" regardless of any "rules."
posted by terceiro at 6:36 PM on March 19, 2005

Turn the sentence to a declarative: "Either of you does something". Not "Either of you do something", unless it's the imperative (which it isn't).

(Substitute "neither" for "either" if you're having trouble parsing the example above.)
posted by aberrant at 6:39 PM on March 19, 2005

andrew cooke - the verb isn't agreeing with "you" it's agreeing with "either". "Either" is a 3rd person pronoun in this case, regardless of singularity/plurality. Therefore you can't conclude it's "do" because "do" agrees with "you".

I still side with "Does" but I can see (based on the above) that it could be interpreted as "either or both" also, which would make it 3rd person plural ("Do").
posted by knave at 9:39 PM on March 19, 2005

I hereby award terceiro the Languagehat Deputy Badge. Wear it with pride, and comment more often, willya? I haven't got time to hang around and police this place the way I used to.

Oh, and let me put in a plug for the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage. To quote Geoff Pullum, a fine linguist whose review happens to be on the Amazon page at the moment:

This is the finest work of scholarship on English grammar and usage I have ever seen, in thirty years of doing research on English grammar. One grouchy reviewer on this page gives it a one-star put-down and grumbles that it is unreliable, advocating a return to Fowler, or Strunk and White. Don't believe it. The stiff and constricting prescriptions of those older works are in fact often unfounded. The third edition of Fowler (prepared by Burchfield) is not an improvement, and actually gets grammatical points wrong (and I means things like giving examples that are not in fact examples of the point at issue). The Merriam-Webster book is on a different level of scholarship. The example collection is magnificent, the analysis is intelligent and accurate, and where it says something is now acceptable literate usage you can trust it. Of course, if you want silly advice, like "never end a sentence with a preposition" or "never split an infinitive", you won't find it: there are irrational prejudices in the English usage field, and this book lends them no support. But this is because it demands EVIDENCE and ARGUMENT concerning the points it treats; it is not content simply to pass on dogmas and myths from past centuries. I was particularly struck by the fantastic value of this book: Amazon brought it to my door for shipping included -- and this is a 990-page large-format hardback! BUY THIS BOOK. You can't afford not to if you have any serious interest in English grammar.

If you don't want to spring for the big one, there's a concise version that's also excellent value for money.
posted by languagehat at 6:33 AM on March 20, 2005

That's incorrect. "Either" stands in for "either one" or more fully, "either one or the other." i.e., "Does either one or the other of you want to accompany me to the dance?"

If you're addressing the people, I would think it stands in for you, ie, "do either (you or you) of you want..." This would be different if you were speaking of people in the third person, where you would say "does either (she or she) of them want to..."

To say "either one of you" is interesting because it seems to sort of mix the second and third persons...
posted by mdn at 8:18 AM on March 20, 2005

I agree with the general outcry, my answer is mistaken in its argument (although half-right in its prescription). Please give my "best answer" and a bouquet of wildflowers to mdn and andrew cooke.
posted by nicwolff at 2:59 PM on March 20, 2005