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None of the 14 firms are going to be sold by the government.

  1. is going
  2. no improvement. I think option 2 is correct but in the answer key it is option 1. Now, I am confused with the use of none of the
user28796
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    Both are fine. It's a free choice. – BillJ Nov 12 '20 at 15:33
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    You talk about an "answer key", so this is clearly in an educational context. I'm afraid therefore that you need to conform to whatever myths and prejudices your teachers or textbooks peddle. The fact is that both options are current in English, but some people have a strong preference, together with a specious justification, for insisting that one is "correct" and the other isn't. – Colin Fine Nov 12 '20 at 15:46
  • What @ColinFine and BllJ said. Note that a couple of centuries ago it was nearly always none of them are, but today it's more like 50-50 with *none of them is**. And British* English has actually switched quite significantly to actually favouring the singular form today. – FumbleFingers Nov 12 '20 at 16:53
  • If you think “all of the firms are going to be retained,” then “none are going to be sold” is sensible. If you think “each firm is going to be retained,” then “none is going to be sold” is sensible. – Jeff Morrow Nov 12 '20 at 17:35

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