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Question

Difficulty: HardSubject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

Consider the sentence below:

"Not only the lead prosecutor but also three-quarters of the evidence presented by the forensic investigators _______ that neither of the prime suspects _______ an alibi for the night of the crime."

Which of the following pairs of verb forms correctly completes the sentence?

  1. indicates / hasAnswer
  2. B
    indicate / have
  3. C
    indicate / has
  4. D
    indicates / have

Answer

The correct pair of verb forms is 'indicates / has'.
When subjects are connected by 'Not only... but also...', proximity rule mandates agreement with the closer subject phrase, 'three-quarters of the evidence'. Fractions governing uncountable head nouns require singular verbs, making 'indicates' correct for the first blank. For the second blank, the indefinite pronoun 'neither' is singular in standard English concord and requires a singular verb ('has'), regardless of the plural object 'prime suspects'. Therefore, the pair stating 'indicates / has' is correct.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the correlated conjunction structure and identify the governing head noun for the first blank.
In sentences using 'Not only... but also...', the verb agrees with the subject closest to it (the element following 'but also'). Here, that subject is 'three-quarters of the evidence'.
Fractional expressions take their agreement from the noun following 'of'. Since 'evidence' is an uncountable (mass) noun, it requires a singular verb ('indicates'). The plural noun 'investigators' is inside a prepositional modifier and cannot act as the subject.
2
Identify the grammatical head and rule for the second blank.
The subject is 'neither of the prime suspects'. The head word is the indefinite pronoun 'neither', which takes the singular verb 'has'.
Indefinite pronouns such as 'neither', 'either', and 'each' are grammatically singular in standard formal concord, even when followed by a plural prepositional phrase like 'of the prime suspects'.

Key Concept

Correlated Conjunction Agreement, Fractional Concord, and Indefinite Pronoun Concord
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Topics

Subject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

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