Quelle phrase est correcte?
Ce sera soit ton père soit moi qui viendrai te chercher
ou
Ce sera soit ton père soit moi qui viendra te chercher
Est-ce que le verbe se conjugue avec le nom le plus proche?
Quelle phrase est correcte?
Ce sera soit ton père soit moi qui viendrai te chercher
ou
Ce sera soit ton père soit moi qui viendra te chercher
Est-ce que le verbe se conjugue avec le nom le plus proche?
This is a very interesting question Julie, I would have said only the second one is correct but most people would use the third- person plural -
But you can use the third-person singular as well
meaning
either = l'un ou l'autre.
If you only had one subject you would say -
Hope this helps!
Could you explain the last point a little more, Cécile? Isn't moi a personal pronoun? Perhaps you mean it's not a subject pronoun, but I don't see how that's relevant. It's still the first person, and I think that's what counts. Compare with c’est moi qui ai ... as explained here:
https://www.academie-francaise.fr/alexandra-n-b-arbouet
According to Grevisse, after "soit ... soit ... " (but without c'est ... qui) agreement with the plural is most common, but the singular is also found. He is unclear on which of the two it should agree with. (He writes: "le dernier ?")
I wonder also, in the plural case, should it not be viendrons ?
Hi Alan,
Thanks for your comments, I have changed my answer to avoid any confusion.
The agreement of the verb with multiple subjects is complicated and disputed within the grammar community.
I have checked with good grammarians in France and that's what we'll say although in everyday French you would probably say -
In a negative 'neither --- nor' sentence you should agree the verb with the last subject but you will also hear the plural -
Hope this helps!
Are you sure you're hearing viendront and not viendrons?
https://dictionnaire.lerobert.com/guide/accord-du-verbe-avec-des-sujets-coordonnes-par-ni-ou-par-ou
Lorsque les sujets ne sont pas de la même personne, le verbe se met au pluriel et s'accorde avec la personne du rang le plus petit.
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