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Question

Difficulty: HardSubject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

Complete the sentence below by supplying the correct present-tense verb form for each blank to satisfy the rules of subject-verb concord.

Answer:Each of the structural engineers who 【are】 deployed to inspect the dam site 【is】 expected to submit a comprehensive safety report.

Answer

Blank 1 requires the plural verb 'are' to agree with the plural antecedent 'engineers', while Blank 2 requires the singular verb 'is' to agree with the singular indefinite pronoun subject 'Each'.
For Blank 1, the relative pronoun 'who' refers to the plural noun antecedent 'engineers', making the plural verb 'are' grammatically mandatory within the relative clause. For Blank 2, the syntactic head of the main subject phrase is the distributive indefinite pronoun 'Each', which takes a singular verb, requiring 'is'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the subject-verb relation for Blank 1
The relative pronoun 'who' introduces a relative clause modifying the plural antecedent 'structural engineers'.
When a relative pronoun (who/which/that) acts as the subject of a dependent clause, its verb must agree in number with its antecedent. Since 'engineers' is plural, Blank 1 requires the plural verb 'are'.
2
Analyze the main clause subject and verb for Blank 2
The main clause subject is the indefinite pronoun 'Each'.
Indefinite pronouns such as 'each', 'everyone', and 'either' are grammatically singular when preceding a prepositional phrase (e.g., 'of the structural engineers'). Therefore, the main verb in Blank 2 must be singular ('is').

Key Concept

Subject-Verb Agreement with Relative Pronoun Antecedents and Indefinite Pronouns
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Topics

Subject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

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