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Question

Difficulty: MediumSubject-Verb Agreement

The sentence below has a blank. Complete the sentence by writing the correct present-tense form of the verb 'to suggest' in the blank, ensuring that it maintains proper subject-verb agreement.

Answer:A collection of letters written by the nineteenth-century poet, in addition to several unpublished journals, 【suggests】 that she traveled extensively throughout Europe.

Answer

suggests
The correct answer is the singular verb 'suggests'. The grammatical subject of the sentence is the singular noun 'collection'. The phrases 'of letters written by the nineteenth-century poet' and 'in addition to several unpublished journals' are intervening modifiers that contain plural nouns ('letters', 'journals') but do not alter the singular status of the subject. A singular subject requires the singular verb form 'suggests'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the true grammatical subject of the sentence.
The subject is 'collection', which is a singular noun.
Subject-verb agreement is determined by the main subject of the clause, not by nouns within modifying phrases.
2
Identify and ignore intervening prepositional or additive phrases between the subject and the verb.
The prepositional phrase 'of letters written by the nineteenth-century poet' and the parenthetical phrase 'in addition to several unpublished journals' contain plural nouns ('letters', 'journals') but do not change the singular nature of the subject 'collection'.
Prepositional phrases and parenthetical structures starting with 'in addition to' do not compound the subject.
3
Match the singular subject with the correct present-tense singular form of the verb 'to suggest'.
The singular present-tense form is 'suggests'.
Singular subjects require singular verbs, which end in an 's' in the present tense.

Key Concept

Subject-Verb Agreement with Intervening Phrases
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Topics

Subject-Verb Agreement

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