SAT Correlative Conjunctions: Subject-Verb Agreement With Either/Or and Neither/Nor

When either...or or neither...nor connects two subjects, the verb agrees with the subject closest to it. For "either the students or the teacher is responsible," the verb "is" agrees with "teacher" (the closer subject), not "students." For "either the teacher or the students are responsible," the verb "are" agrees with "students" (the closer subject). This proximity rule is different from most subject-verb agreement rules and is therefore a common SAT testing point.

This contrasts with "both...and," which always creates a plural subject requiring a plural verb regardless of proximity. "Both the teacher and the students are responsible" always uses "are." Remembering that "both" always means plural while "either/or" and "neither/nor" require proximity agreement prevents the most common correlative-conjunction error on the SAT.

When you see either...or or neither...nor in a grammar question, apply this four-step routine: (1) locate both nouns in the pair; (2) identify which noun is closer to the verb; (3) determine if that noun is singular or plural; (4) verify the verb number matches. If the verb does not match the closer noun, the sentence has a subject-verb agreement error. Practice the routine on: "Neither the results nor the method is flawed." Closer noun to verb = "method" (singular). Verb = "is" (singular). Correct.

Three micro-examples: (1) "Either the dog or the cats are howling" (closer noun "cats" is plural; "are" is correct). (2) "Neither the managers nor the employee was notified" (closer noun "employee" is singular; "was" is correct). (3) "Either the reports or the summary is ready" (closer noun "summary" is singular; "is" is correct). Circling the closer noun and its number before evaluating the verb is the fastest way to apply the proximity rule under time pressure.

In addition to agreement, correlative conjunctions require parallelism: the grammatical form after each conjunction must match. "She is not only talented but also hardworking" is parallel (adjective + adjective). "She not only sings well but also dances gracefully" is parallel (verb phrase + verb phrase). "She is not only talented but also dances well" is non-parallel (adjective + verb phrase) and appears as an error in SAT Writing questions.

Practice prompt: identify the error in "He was not only a gifted musician but also performed brilliantly." The first half is "a gifted musician" (noun phrase) and the second is "performed brilliantly" (verb phrase); they are not parallel. Correction: "He not only was a gifted musician but also performed brilliantly" (both verb phrases). When a correlative pair test arrives, check both agreement and parallelism separately, since the SAT embeds both types of errors in these constructions.

Build automaticity with a 5-day drill: each day, find or write five sentences containing either...or or neither...nor, apply the four-step proximity routine, and then check parallelism in the same sentence. Aim to complete both checks in under 15 seconds per sentence by day 3. On day 5, use timed SAT grammar practice passages and mark every correlative conjunction before answering the surrounding questions.

Tracking your error rate on day 1 vs. day 5 shows whether the routine is working. If errors persist on one specific error type (agreement vs. parallelism), extend the drill for another three days targeting that type exclusively. Separating agreement and parallelism into two sequential checks rather than looking for both simultaneously reduces cognitive load and improves accuracy on these two-layer grammar questions.