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Have or Has?

Hello!

I have two examples relating to the proper use of have/has when using "any" as the subject.
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Example 1

Neither the Company nor any of its Subsidiaries have/has . . .

Example 2

Neither the Company nor any Subsidiaries have/has . . .

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My inclination is that both sentences should end with "has." Am I correct?

Thanks!!!!!

Re: Have or Has?

You know that the conjunction 'and' joins two singular nouns in the subject so that we use a plural verb;
…but 'or' and 'nor' do not conjoin. When 'or' or 'nor' is used, the subject closer to the verb determines the number of the verb. This won't matter if both nouns are singular, but becomes important if one of them is plural. Whether the whole subject comes before or after the verb doesn't matter - the proximity of the verb to one of the nouns determines the number:

Either my father or my brotherS ARE going to sell the house. (Plural noun is closest to the verb.)
Neither my brothers nor my father IS going to sell the house.(Singular noun is closer to the verb.)
NOTE:
Because a sentence like "Neither my brothers nor my father is going to sell the house" sounds peculiar, always put the plural noun closer to the verb, and use a plural verb:
"Neither my father nor my brotherS ARE going to sell the house"

So -

Neither the Company nor any of its SubsidiarIES HAVE ... : plural noun closer to the verb, and plural verb.

(I tried using bolded text throughout, but it's so unreliable.)

Re: Have or Has?

Hi Ryan.

That’s an interesting question. Your two examples have slightly different structures, so different considerations apply to verb agreement.

1. "Neither the Company nor any of its Subsidiaries have/has ..."

Two important points:

(a) A "neither ... nor" phrase comprises a marker (neither) + coordinator ("nor"), so this example displays a coordination of two noun phrases joined by the coordinator "nor".

(b) "Any" occurs freely with both singular and plural agreement, cf. "Do you know if any of these cars is/are for sale". "Any of its subsidiaries" is a partitive construction in which "any" is called a 'fused determiner-head'. It means "Any subsidiary (one or more) from the set of its subsidiaries", so "any" can have a singular or plural interpretation. Note, by the way that "any" is head of the noun phrase, not "subsidiaries". The effect of this is that "any of its subsidiaries" can be conceptualised as 'one subsidiary' or 'one or more' subsidiaries’, so either singular "has" or plural "have" is acceptable.


2. "Neither the Company nor any Subsidiaries have / ?has ..."

Things are different here. "Any subsidiaries" is unarguably plural, so we have a nor-coordination with a singular noun phrase and a plural one. Nor-coordinations of coordinates with unlike numbers are problematic, and the singular verb "has" is of questionable acceptability, especially when the nearest coordinate to the verb is plural, as it is here. I'd stick with plural "have" if I were you.


PaulM