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Zorluk: Çok zorSubject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

Which of the following verb pairs correctly completes the sentence below in accordance with the rules of subject-verb agreement (concord)?

"Neither the lead investigator nor the senior analysts on the research team, along with the project coordinator, _______ willing to admit that each of the newly submitted reports _______ critical empirical errors."

  1. are / containsCevap
  2. B
    is / contains
  3. C
    are / contain
  4. D
    is / contain

Cevap

The verb pair 'are / contains' correctly completes the sentence.
The verb pair featuring 'are' and 'contains' is correct because: (1) In correlated structures with 'neither... nor', the verb agrees with the nearer subject element ('the senior analysts', which is plural), and parenthetical additions such as 'along with the project coordinator' do not alter subject number; (2) The indefinite pronoun 'each' functions as a singular head noun and requires a singular verb ('contains') regardless of the plural noun 'reports' inside the modifying prepositional phrase.

Adım Adım Çözüm

1
Analyze the first clause subject structure: 'Neither the lead investigator nor the senior analysts... along with the project coordinator'.
The correlated conjunction rule states that when subjects are joined by 'neither... nor', the verb must agree with the subject closest to it ('senior analysts', which is plural). Parenthetical expressions introduced by 'along with' do not change the grammatical number of the subject.
The verb for the first blank must be plural ('are').
2
Analyze the second clause subject structure: 'each of the newly submitted reports'.
The head of the noun phrase is the indefinite pronoun 'each', which is strictly singular. The plural object of the preposition ('reports') does not alter the singular nature of the head pronoun.
The verb for the second blank must be singular ('contains').
3
Combine the results of both clauses.
The correct sequence of verb forms is 'are' for the first blank and 'contains' for the second blank.
Matching both grammatical rules yields 'are / contains'.

Anahtar Kavram

Correlated Conjunction Agreement and Indefinite Pronoun Concord
Bu soruyu puanla

Konular

Subject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

Bu konudan daha fazla soru