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Difficulty: Very hardSubject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

Supply the appropriate past-tense auxiliary verb ('was' or 'were') for each blank in the sentence below to fulfill the requirements of grammatical concord.

Answer:Although more than one architect 【was】 consulted regarding the structural renovation, three-quarters of the blueprints 【were】 found to contain critical engineering flaws.

Answer

The first blank requires the singular auxiliary verb 'was' and the second blank requires the plural auxiliary verb 'were'.
The correct response places 'was' in the first blank and 'were' in the second blank. 'Was' is correct for the first blank because the expression 'more than one' modifying a singular countable noun ('architect') demands a singular verb. 'Were' is correct for the second blank because fractional quantifiers ('three-quarters of') take a verb that agrees with the head noun of the prepositional phrase ('blueprints'), which is plural.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Determine the subject and appropriate verb form for the first blank.
The subject is 'more than one architect'. Grammatical concord specifies that the noun phrase 'more than one' followed by a singular countable noun takes a singular verb.
Although the semantic meaning implies multiple architects, formal syntactic concord is governed by the singular head noun 'architect', requiring 'was'.
2
Determine the subject and appropriate verb form for the second blank.
The subject phrase is 'three-quarters of the blueprints'. Concord for fractional or percentage expressions is determined by the noun following 'of'.
Because 'blueprints' is a plural countable noun, the fractional expression 'three-quarters of the blueprints' requires the plural verb 'were'.

Key Concept

Subject-Verb Concord with 'More than one' and Fractional Expressions
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Topics

Subject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

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