If two subjects are joined by the correlative pairs Either…or or Neither…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 (discussed in the previous section) no longer applies.

In these constructions, neither and either are no longer the subject. 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. The third noun, client, is the object. Since the latter subject, staff members, is plural, we need the plural verb were.

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