The Editor’s Manual
Free learning resource on English grammar, punctuation, usage, and style.
“Either” is grammatically singular and used with singular verbs (like “is” and “has”) in formal usage. In informal usage, the word may be treated as either singular or plural.
“None” may be either singular or plural, depending on whether you mean “not one” or “not any.” To refer to the individual members of a group, use a singular verb; for the entire group, use a plural verb.
Use “I” instead of “me” when it forms part of the subject (“You and I can work on this together”). When pronouns are joined using “or” or “nor” to form the subject, the verb should agree with the part closest to it (“Either you or I am right”).
Anticipatory reference occurs when a pronoun appears before its antecedent, or the person or thing it refers to, in a sentence (“When she can, Rita runs marathons”).
“Who’s” is the contraction of “who is” or “who has,” while “whose” is the possessive form of “who.”
Possessive forms of nouns (with an apostrophe either before or after an “s”) and pronouns (without an apostrophe) indicate a relationship of belonging.
A pronoun is a word that substitutes for a noun. Pronouns may be personal, reflexive, possessive, demonstrative, interrogative, relative, reciprocal, or indefinite.
Use “who” for the subject and “whom” for the object in a sentence. In everyday communication, “who” can replace “whom.” To choose between “who” and “whom,” a simple trick is to form a question and frame its answer.