Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
I have two boys, but _____ of them likes pop music.
(a) Either
(b) Both
(c) Neither
(d) None

Answer 1

Hint: Read the sentence and try to guess what it is trying to convey. Now go through the given options and choose the one which helps in expressing the context of the given sentence. You can use the hit and trial method too.

Complete answer:
A subject-verb agreement must accord in number. Either both the subject and verb should be singular or both should be plural in number. We use ‘neither’ to exclude all the given choices.
‘Neither’ is used in a negative sense. For example- My friends are singers, but neither of them likes to sing on the stage.
Now, in the given question- We can see the use of the pronoun ‘them’ and ‘of’. Hence, the correct answer is ‘neither’, because ‘neither of’ is used before pronouns and plural countable nouns accompanied by a determiner.
Let’s examine the given options-
Option a- ‘Either’ is an incorrect option because ‘either’ is used to indicate two possibilities.
Option b- ‘Both’ is an incorrect option because ‘both’ emphasizes two people seen as together.
Option c- ‘Neither’ is the correct option because we can see the use of ‘but’. Hence, we can conclude that the sentence is given in the negative sense.
Option d- ‘None’ is an incorrect option because ‘none’ is used as a pronoun in place of countable and uncountable nouns. Hence, the correct answer is Option ‘c’.

Note:
Keep in mind, ‘neither’ is placed before singular countable nouns, whereas ‘neither of’ is placed before plural countable nouns.