none used with a singular verb vs. a plural verb

Elizabeth Edwards emerged blameless as a wife and a speaker in yesterday’s news-making confession. She issued a statement, saying: “Our family has been through a lot. Some caused by nature, some caused by human weakness, and some most recently caused by the desire for sensationalism and profit without any regard for the human consequences. None of these has been easy.”

She avoided the temptation of pairing a plural pronoun, these, with a plural verb, “None of these have been easy.” It’s important to remember that sometimes none calls for a singular verb and other times, it needs a plural verb.

Here, none is used in the sense of not one, which calls for a singular verb. Not one of the challenges the Edwards family faced — the death of a child, cancer, infidelity, media scrunity — has been easy.

None requires a plural verb when it’s used to mean no two (or more). For example: “None of the Democratic leaders agree on a vice presidential candidate.” It takes at least two people or parties to agree with each other, and in this sentence, we have not two or more agreeing. Here’s another example: “None of the teams debate today.” Again, it takes two teams to debate, and not two them are scheduled today.