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Difficulty: MediumSubject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

Complete the sentence below by supplying the verb form that correctly satisfies the rules of grammatical concord.

Answer:Neither the chief negotiator nor the labor union representatives 【were】 willing to compromise on the revised wage structure during yesterday's emergency session.

Answer

were
In English grammar, when two subjects of different grammatical numbers are joined by correlated conjunctions such as 'neither...nor', the verb follows the rule of proximity and agrees with the subject closer to the blank. Here, the closer subject is the plural noun phrase 'the labor union representatives'. Combined with the past temporal indicator 'yesterday's emergency session', the past tense plural verb 'were' is the only grammatically correct choice.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the subjects and the connecting conjunction in the sentence.
The subjects are 'the chief negotiator' (singular) and 'the labor union representatives' (plural), connected by the correlated conjunction 'neither...nor'.
Correlated conjunctions require applying specific concord rules to establish agreement.
2
Apply the rule of proximity to determine the grammatical number of the verb.
The verb must agree with the subject closest to it, which is 'the labor union representatives' (plural).
When subjects of different numbers are linked by 'neither...nor', proximity concord dictates that the verb agrees in number with the nearer subject.
3
Select the correct past tense plural verb form.
The plural past tense verb 'were' correctly completes the gap.
The temporal marker 'yesterday's emergency session' requires past tense, and agreement with the plural noun 'representatives' requires 'were'.

Key Concept

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

Subject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

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