

DISCLAIMER I AM AN AUTHORITY ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE


IGNORE "of these"in the previous poster's sentence. Because, that is a prepositional phrase

. Based upon proper grammatical rules, a prepositional phrase can be removed from a sentence and still read correctly

. In essence, the sentence should read


"None ___ that big of a deal etc .." Based upon the context, of the point he was trying to convey, ARE is most likely correct (referring to a group or many).
SAMPLE EXAMPLES


.
Question: Are there any oranges left?
Response: No there are none.
Explanation: ARE is used because ORANGES IS PLURAL

.
Question: Is my hat there?
Response: No it IS gone
Explanation: IS IS USED BECAUSE "HAT" IS SINGULAR

SUBJECT/VERB AGREEMENT