Neither/nor and either/or are a special case. If two subjects are joined by or or nor, the verb should agree with the subject that is closer to it.

If the conjunction nor appears in a sentence with neither; or the conjunction or with either, then the "neither/either" rule as stated above no longer applies. That is, if you see "neither" followed by "nor," or "either" followed by "or," you can't automatically assume that the verb should be singular, as we did in the last section. "Neither…nor" and "either…or" means, at least in the world of GMAT grammar, "be careful."

In these constructions, "neither" and "either" are no longer the subjects of their sentences. Instead, they function as conjunctions, working in pairs with "nor" and "or" to join two other subjects in the sentence. When this occurs, the verb agrees with whichever subject is closer to it.

This "neither…nor" sentence contains two subjects: "supervisor," and "staff members." (Why is "client" not a subject too? Because in these situations, the subjects are the two nouns immediately following the words "neither" and "nor.") Since the latter subject, "staff members," is plural, we therefore need a plural verb, too. The plural verb "were" is correct.

This example is identical, grammatically, to the one above, except that the correlative conjunction joining the subjects is "either/or." The verb must therefore agree with the subject closest to it, which is "child," a singular noun. The proper verb form is the singular "is."

Remember to apply this rule only when both items of the pairs "neither/nor" and "either/or" are present in the sentence.

E. Neither / Either

G. Subject / Verb / Object