None, is it Singular or Plural?

 "None" .. How to deal with it?

Have you ever wondered whether to choose "none is" or "none are"? Maybe you would like to say "It's none of your business?

What is "None"?

"None" as a word is defined as "an indefinite Pronoun", and it means "not one", "not any", or "nothing". It can be used as "an adverb", and it means "not at all".

None .. Singular or Plural?

The final result of a debate between grammarians is that "none" can be both Singular and Plural depending on what the speaker means.

This is the general but I will help you differentiate:

"None" as an indefinite Pronoun should agree with the noun / Pronoun to which it refers.

Plural

• None of your words ARE carefully chosen. ("words" is plural, so it takes a plural verb)
• None of my friends ARE going to the movies .
• Three people WERE in the bar. None of them were women.
• None of the books ARE worth reading. (more familiar)
• I bought many pencils, but none of them ARE suitable for drawing.

Singular 

not one , nothing, mass nouns, not any

• None of your words IS carefully chosen. (Though same sentence, but here "none of" would mean a subset of "words" meaning "not a one word". So, it can be singular.)
• None of your advice IS helpful. ("advice" is a singular mass noun, so "none" takes a singular verb form "is".)
• She ate it all , and none is left. (nothing left).
• None of the members is going to vote. (no one, not one)
• None of the snow has melted. (not any part of the snow)
• None of the books is worth reading. (correct but less familiar)
• None of the gossip was about me. (not any part of the gossip. Also, "gossip is a mass noun." )