Examkin

Question

Difficulty: MediumSubject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

Each of the senior legal consultants who were brought in to evaluate the contract terms _______ expressed grave concerns about the indemnity clause. Which option appropriately completes the sentence according to the rules of subject-verb agreement?

  1. hasAnswer
  2. B
    have
  3. C
    were
  4. D
    are

Answer

The correct option is 'has'.
The singular indefinite pronoun 'Each' functions as the head subject of the sentence, requiring the singular auxiliary verb 'has' to maintain proper subject-verb agreement.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the head subject of the main clause.
The head subject is the indefinite pronoun 'Each'.
Prepositional phrases like 'of the senior legal consultants' and relative clauses like 'who were brought in...' serve as post-modifiers and do not change the grammatical head.
2
Determine the grammatical number of the indefinite pronoun 'Each'.
The word 'Each' is singular in grammatical number.
Standard rules of English concord dictate that 'each' takes a singular verb.
3
Select the correct singular auxiliary verb to pair with the past participle 'expressed'.
The singular present-perfect auxiliary 'has' completes the verb phrase correctly.
'Has' agrees in number with 'Each' and avoids false agreement with nearby plural nouns.

Key Concept

Indefinite Pronoun Concord and Error of Proximity
Estimated Time:1m 0s
Rate this question

Topics

Subject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

More questions from this topic