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Question

Difficulty: MediumSubject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

Select the option that appropriately fills the gap in the sentence to maintain correct grammatical concord: 'Neither the managing director nor the project coordinators _____ available for comment when the press release was issued.'

  1. A
    was
  2. wereAnswer
  3. C
    is
  4. D
    has been

Answer

The correct option is 'were'. In correlated subjects joined by 'neither...nor', the verb agrees in number and person with the noun phrase closest to it (proximity concord). Because 'project coordinators' is plural and the context is past tense, the plural past verb 'were' is required.
The choice 'were' adheres to proximity concord rules. When subjects are joined by correlated conjunctions such as 'neither...nor', the verb must agree with the subject closest to it. Here, the noun 'project coordinators' is plural and nearest to the gap, demanding the plural past-tense verb 'were' to match the past-tense contextual marker 'was issued'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the grammatical structure of the subject.
The sentence uses a correlated conjunction structure ('Neither...nor') joining two subjects: 'the managing director' (singular) and 'the project coordinators' (plural).
Correlated conjunctions require applying the rule of proximity concord.
2
Locate the noun phrase closest to the verb position.
The closer subject is 'the project coordinators', which is a plural noun phrase.
Under the principle of proximity, when subjects connected by 'nor' differ in number, the verb agrees with the nearer subject.
3
Select the correct verb form matching both number and tense.
The past-tense indicator 'was issued' establishes a past timeframe, making the plural past-tense auxiliary 'were' the only grammatically correct choice.
The verb must maintain both plural agreement with 'coordinators' and tense consistency with the rest of the sentence.

Key Concept

Proximity Concord with Correlated Conjunctions (Neither...nor)
Estimated Time:50s
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Topics

Subject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

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