Page:A Desk-Book of Errors in English.djvu/87 Errors in English
either you or I are (am or is) right: Which should it be? You
are; I am; who is—which of the two? The complete sentence is
clearly "Either you (are right) or I (am right)." If the pronoun
had been coupled, as in "Both you and I" the plural verb would
of course follow; but the very fact of this would seem to
indicate that where they are distinctly disjoined, as here, the
verb should not be plural and should therefore be singular. Yet
who could say "either you or I am right." Peculiar as it is—it
being impossible to say either "you is" or "I is" the solution
is to be found in the use of is; and the correct rendering is,
"Either you or I—one of us—is right." Dr. Latham cites the rule
thus, "Wherever the word either or neither precedes the
pronouns, the verb is in the third person." He adds a second
rule to the effect that if the disjunctive is without the word
either or neither, then the verb agrees with the first of the
two pronouns. He would corre