# EN: Aucun de ses deux frères n'était là



## newg

Hello everyone 

I would like to translate this sentence into english. Here is my attempt :


_Neither her brother was there_ 

"neither" implies here only two people so I don't need to write "her two brothers", right? 

Moreover I think we can't have a plural after "neither" in that case. For instance : "_Aucun des deux garçons n'était là_" will be translated by "_Neither boy was there_".

Hope I'm right and if not I hope you can help 

Thanks in advance


----------



## loislane.

I think the "her" creates a problem in this case because it makes sense to say "neither brother was there" but when you say "neither her brother was here", it implies singular.  I would say "neither of her brothers were there" or "neither brother was there".  Hope that helped!


----------



## newg

> but when you say "neither her brother was here", it implies singular


 
Why would it imply singular? :s


----------



## loislane.

I'm actually not sure of the exact grammar but I think it's the word neither.. I've never heard it with a pronoun right after, except in a structure like "Neither her brother nor her sister was there"  I think the word neither, in a way..replaces the pronoun in some way.  Sorry I can't give you a more clear explanation :/


----------



## johndot

I am quite certain that the proper translation is “neither of her two brothers was there”.
 
The phrasing “neither her brother was there” (often used poetically) simply means _her brother was not there either_. The text would make clear who the other absentees were—_which could include the sister herself_.


----------



## Embonpoint

johndot said:


> I am quite certain that the proper translation is “neither of her two brothers was there”.
> 
> The phrasing “neither her brother was there” (often used poetically) simply means _her brother was not there either_. The text would make clear who the other absentees were—_which could include the sister herself_.



I agree with the above translation. This is the proper phrasing.


----------



## Lezert

Couldn't we say:
"none of her two brothers..." ?


----------



## Embonpoint

Lezert said:


> Couldn't we say:
> "none of her two brothers..." ?



No. If there are only two, you have to say neither.

If she had three brothers, then you could say, "None of her three brothers..."


----------



## Lezert

Thank you Embompoint,
Grace à vous je dormirai moins bête ce soir


----------



## Forero

Je croix que le verbe doit être singulier ("était", _was_), mais il y a encore de divers posibilités:

_Neither of her two brothers was there._
_Neither one of her two brothers was there.
Not one of her two brothers was there.
_


----------



## newg

Merci de vos réponses  
Moi aussi je me coucherai (leverai?) moins bête


----------



## jann

While some people may insist that the pronoun _neither_ should be followed by a singular verb, the Merriam-Webster dictionary, for one, admits the possibility of a plural: neither.

Personally, the sentence that would come naturally from my lips uses a plural:  _Neither of her brothers were there/present._


----------



## jasonlw12

For me it sounds better as "Neither brother was there."  Though if the idea of possession is absolutely neccessary then I would go with, "Neither one of her brothers was there."


----------



## Tim~!

I agree with jann's summary.

In most cases of spoken BrEng, people would follow with a plural verb, influenced by the presence of a plural noun next to the verb, instead of the actual (singular) subject _neither_.

For a lot of people (me included), _was _sounds wrong, even though analysis shows it to be correct.  I fear that speaking correctly would actually mark one as a non-native!


----------



## Embonpoint

In AE all of the followingformulations sound native, and are also correct:

Neither of her brothers was there.
Neither of her two brothers was there.
Neither one of her brothers was there.
Neither brother was there.

The last shorter form assumes the speaker knows she has brothers. I would tend to use if we already had spoken about the brothers. "Did you see either of her two brothers, Jack or Eric?" "No, neither brother was there."


----------



## newg

Thanks so much all of you


----------

