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Question

Difficulty: MediumSubject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

Consider the following sentence:

"Neither of the financial proposals submitted by the regional committees _____ viable under the newly approved municipal budget."

Which verb form correctly completes the sentence to maintain proper subject-verb concord?

  1. appearsAnswer
  2. B
    appear
  3. C
    are appearing
  4. D
    have appeared

Answer

The correct option is 'appears' because the subject of the clause is the singular indefinite pronoun 'Neither', which requires a singular verb.
The sentence requires a singular verb to agree with the head subject 'Neither'. The option 'appears' is the only singular verb choice provided, making it grammatically correct.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the head of the subject noun phrase.
The head of the subject is the indefinite pronoun 'Neither', not the plural complement 'proposals' inside the prepositional phrase.
Prepositional modifiers such as 'of the financial proposals' do not alter the grammatical number of the core subject.
2
Apply the rule of concord for indefinite pronouns.
'Neither' strictly takes a singular verb in standard formal English.
Indefinite pronouns like 'each', 'either', and 'neither' refer to items individually and are grammatically singular.
3
Select the third-person singular present tense verb form.
'appears' is the correct singular form, whereas 'appear', 'are appearing', and 'have appeared' are plural forms.
In the simple present tense, singular verbs end with an '-s' suffix.

Key Concept

Indefinite Pronoun Subject-Verb Agreement
Estimated Time:1m 0s
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Topics

Subject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

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