None was? Or were?

[ChipInTheSugar]

I think it's the former, but I know in speech it's generally said as the latter.

Would you correct 'were' to 'was' in a written piece? Or accept that the wrong version is generally accepted?

Are you proofreading or marking? What's your relationship to the writer?

Officially, "none" means "not one" so needs to be followed by the third person singular.

If I were, for example, checking my husband's thesis or stroppy letter to an official body I would correct it and tell him I'd done so. If looking at an acquaintance's post before it went up on Gumtree I'd probably not bother.

What is the context? What is the rest of the sentence?

Depends if they are talking about a single thing or a multiple.

What is the sentence-it’s impossible to say without context?

I was asked last week by one of my Y1 pupils how to spell ‘Ponna’. On closer investigation, it turned out he was trying to write a story beginning, ‘once upon a time’.

When asking for spelling and grammar help, always give the rest of the sentence...

I think was. Isn’t it a contraction of “not one”?

I can't think of a context where it would be "were" given it means not one, (as pointed out by pp).

Whether or not I would correct it would depend on the context of who had said/ written it and my relationship with them.

data.grammarbook.com/blog/singular-vs-plural/none-were-vs-none-was/ this explains it a bit.

I looked for the cookies. None were there.

'None was there' doesn't sound correct to me in this instance

Just because it doesn't sound correct doesn't mean it isn't correct! 😀
If you changed the sentence to read "not one was there", does that sound better?

Both, depending on whether singular or plural.
‘I asked for suggestions. None were forthcoming’
‘I asked for help. None was given’
PS this is what sounds right to me, I’m no grammatician.

“I took all 14 of my children on a trip. None was left behind.” That doesn’t sound right, for instance.

I asked for suggestions. None were forthcoming

That isn't correct though. You see it when you use not one.

I asked for suggestions. Not ne was forthcoming

not one obviously

I looked for the cookies. None were was there.

I looked for the cookies. Not one was there.

In merryhouse's post above
If I were, for example, checking my husband's thesis or stroppy letter....
'were' sounds correct but should that be 'was' as well? If we are saying that it's a singular/plural thing? I go by what sounds ok to me, probably wrong most of the time!

None is not always singular and is not just a contraction of not one from my investigations.

I stand corrected and apologise, dementedpixie et al

Got to love pendants corner. Everyday a school day

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/none#h1 there's a wee video on here explaining about when none is used as a plural

As several pp have said, it's a contraction of 'not one' so is always singular. Context is irrelevant.

It's not always singular though. Have you researched this at all?

Apologies for the lateness of coming back to the thread! One of those evenings ...

It's in a piece that a colleague is going to have published. I was definite when I first read it that it should be singular, then starting talking myself out of it, because it does sound wrong/clunky to say. I'll stand by my original decision - thank you

When is it, correctly, not singular demented?

Give us an example.

Read the links, watch the video

@Lexplorer

ha! didn't even notice that.

"If I were" is a thing. Erm... the subjunctive? (I was schooled in the wedontneednogrammar seventies). You may have heard people say "if I were you"?

Yes, "I were" is subjunctive mood, describing a hypothetical situation, in contrast to "I was" which is past tense:

"If I were in Paris, I would visit the Louvre" - an imagined possibility.

"If I was in Paris, then you couldn't have seen me at the Tower of London yesterday" - the speaker was in Paris and is making a factual deduction from that.

So, the situation where you could write "none were" is if using the subjunctive: "I wish that my father were here. As for my in-laws, I wish that none were here." (obviously not a sentiment you ever see on MN ).