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Question

Difficulty: EasySubject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

Consider the following sentence:

"The list of selected candidates _____ published on the official portal yesterday."

Which option correctly completes the sentence according to the rules of subject-verb agreement?

  1. wasAnswer
  2. B
    were
  3. C
    are
  4. D
    have been

Answer

was
The singular verb 'was' correctly agrees with the singular head noun 'list'. Prepositional modifiers placed between the head noun and the verb do not change the singular nature of the subject.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the complete grammatical subject of the sentence.
The complete subject phrase is 'The list of selected candidates'.
Isolating the subject phrase is necessary to determine which noun controls the verb.
2
Identify the head noun of the subject phrase.
The head noun is 'list' (singular), while 'of selected candidates' is an intervening prepositional phrase.
The verb must agree in number with the head noun, not with nouns inside modifying prepositional phrases.
3
Select the correct singular verb form that fits the past context.
The verb 'was' is selected.
A singular head noun requires the singular past tense verb form.

Key Concept

Subject-Verb Agreement (Head Noun vs. Proximity)
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Topics

Subject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

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