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Can anyone clarify which of the following is correct?

"Neither my mother nor I was conscious of rudeness"

"Neither my mother nor I were conscious of rudeness"

I thought it was the latter, but the grammar checker I use isn't picking up the first sentence as a mistake. Am I right in saying "were" is third-person past tense for "to be?" And I would think "my mother and I" is third person, as it's a 'body' of something. Hence, it should be "were".

Any help would be appreciated.

tchrist
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    This belongs on https://ell.stackexchange.com/ – Chenmunka Nov 26 '21 at 09:18
  • @Chenmunka While I agree that this is off-topic on Writing.SE and needs to be migrated, there's nothing in the question or in OP's profile to suggest that English is their second language, so I'm migrating this to English.SE instead. – F1Krazy Nov 26 '21 at 15:09
  • @F1Krazy ELL is for more basic questions, no matter how many languages the questioner has some degree of fluency in and no matter which is their first language. ESL visitors often have questions at 'this (ie the more basic) level' (a continuum is a more realistic model, and there are certainly areas of overlap). // However, the question here asks about an area where there isn't a real consensus, so is valid on ELU. Or was the first time it was asked about. – Edwin Ashworth Nov 26 '21 at 15:21
  • Related. – tchrist Oct 22 '23 at 21:27

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