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Question

Difficulty: EasySubject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

Fill in the blank with the grammatically correct form of the verb to complete the sentence below.

Answer:Neither the manager nor the employees 【were】 satisfied with the new work schedule announced last week.

Answer

were
According to the principle of proximity concord, when compound subjects are connected by 'neither... nor', the verb must agree in number with the subject closest to it. Here, the noun phrase nearest to the blank is 'the employees' (plural). Combined with the past tense time marker 'last week', the correct plural past tense verb is 'were'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the subject structure connected by correlative conjunctions.
The sentence uses 'neither... nor' to connect two subjects: 'the manager' (singular) and 'the employees' (plural).
Under the rule of proximity concord, when subjects are joined by 'neither... nor', the verb must agree with the subject closest to it.
2
Identify the subject closest to the verb blank and determine its number and tense context.
The closest subject is 'the employees', which is plural, and the context 'last week' indicates past tense.
A plural subject in the past tense requires the plural past tense verb form 'were'.

Key Concept

Proximity Concord
Estimated Time:45s
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Topics

Subject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

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