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Question

Difficulty: MediumSubject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

Complete the sentence below by filling in the blank with the grammatically correct verb form to maintain subject-verb concord.

Answer:Either the chief executive officer or his deputies 【are】 attending the international economic summit next week.

Answer

The correct verb to fill the blank is 'are'.
When two subjects are connected by 'Either... or', the principle of proximity concord applies. This rule dictates that the verb must agree with the subject closest to it. Here, the plural noun 'deputies' is closest to the blank, requiring the plural verb form 'are'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the structure of the subject in the sentence.
The subject consists of two elements connected by the correlative conjunction pair 'Either... or': 'the chief executive officer' (singular) and 'his deputies' (plural).
Correlative conjunctions link two separate noun phrases acting as compound subjects.
2
Apply the rule of proximity concord for correlative subjects.
The verb must agree in number with the subject noun nearest to it, which is 'deputies' (plural).
When subjects are joined by 'either... or' or 'neither... nor', proximity concord dictates that the verb agrees with the closer subject element.
3
Select the appropriate auxiliary verb for continuous present/future action.
The plural auxiliary verb 'are' correctly matches the plural noun 'deputies'.
'Are' fulfills both the requirement for plural agreement and continuous aspect for an upcoming event.

Key Concept

Proximity Concord with Correlative Conjunctions
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Topics

Subject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

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