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Question

Difficulty: MediumSubject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

Complete the sentence by filling in the blank with the grammatically correct past-tense verb form that maintains proper concord.

Answer:Neither the lead auditor nor the senior accountants 【were】 present when the sudden internal investigation was announced.

Answer

were
According to the rule of proximity in English grammatical concord, when two subjects are connected by 'neither... nor', the verb agrees with the subject closest to it. In this sentence, the subject closest to the blank is the plural noun phrase 'the senior accountants', which correctly requires the plural past-tense verb 'were'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the conjunction structure connecting the subjects in the sentence.
The subjects 'the lead auditor' (singular) and 'the senior accountants' (plural) are joined by the correlative conjunction 'neither... nor'.
Correlative conjunctions require specific concord rules governing verb agreement.
2
Apply the rule of proximity for subjects connected by 'neither... nor'.
The verb must agree in number with the subject closest to the verb slot, which is the plural noun phrase 'the senior accountants'.
When subjects of different grammatical numbers are joined by 'neither... nor', the proximity rule dictates that the nearest subject determines the agreement.
3
Select the correct plural past-tense verb form.
The correct past-tense plural verb form is 'were'.
The singular verb 'was' fails to agree with the nearest plural subject 'senior accountants'.

Key Concept

Proximity Concord with Correlative Conjunctions
Estimated Time:1m 0s
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Topics

Subject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

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