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In informal English, plural possessive adjectives are often used in this type of sentence.e.g. Neither of the girls finished their homework.However, this use of the plural possessive adjective is considered to be grammaticallyincorrect in formal English.It should be noted that in both formal and informal English, none is used sometimeswith singular, and sometimes with plural verbs.e.g. None of them i? here. orNone of them are here.In contrast, the pronouns both, few, many and several are always plural. They takeplural verbs, and are used in combination with plural personal pronouns and possessiveadjectives. In addition, the pronoun all is always plural when used with countablenouns.e.g. Both of the boys have completed their essays.Several of the musicians are gi ving their first performances tonight.All of the girls have finished their homework.In these examples, the pronouns both, several and all take the plural verbs havecompleted, are giving and have finished, and are used in combination with the pluralpossessive adjective their.See Exercise 2 .3. The use of All, Both and EachIn addition to being used as attributive adjectives and as pronouns followed by of, thewords all, both and each can also be used in apposition. A word used in appositionimmediately follows the subject of a verb, or the object of a verb or preposition, andrefers to the same thing as the subject or object. In the following examples, the wordsin apposition are printed in bold type.e.g. We both wondered what would happen next.The boys all looked forward to seeing the circus.I sent them each an invitation.In the first two examples, both and all are used in apposition to the subjects we andthe boys. In the third example, each is used in apposition to the object them.Words used in apposition can be referred to as appositives. Like relative clauses,appositives can be defining or non·defining. Non·defining appositives must be precededand followed by commas.e.g. Our leader, Tom Smith, was prepared for any emergency.In this example Tom Smith is a non· defining appositive, in apposition to our leader.Defining appositives such as all, both and each are not preceded and followed bycommas.

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