Examkin

Soru

Zorluk: Çok zorSubject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

Which of the following verb forms correctly completes the sentence below?

Not only the lead prosecutor but also each of the defense attorneys who participated in the high-profile tribunal _______ expecting the judge to grant a stay of execution.

  1. isCevap
  2. B
    are
  3. C
    were
  4. D
    have been

Cevap

The correct option is 'is' because in correlative conjunction structures (not only... but also), the verb agrees with the subject phrase following 'but also'. Within that phrase ('each of the defense attorneys'), the head word is the singular indefinite pronoun 'each', which strictly mandates a singular verb.
The sentence uses the correlative conjunction pair 'not only... but also...', which mandates that the verb agree with the second subject component ('each of the defense attorneys...'). The head word of this noun phrase is the indefinite pronoun 'each', which is grammatically singular and takes the singular verb 'is'.

Adım Adım Çözüm

1
Identify the structural rule governing correlative conjunctions.
In sentences joined by 'not only... but also...', the verb must agree with the subject phrase closest to the verb (the second subject element).
Correlative proximity concord dictates that the clause after 'but also' controls verb agreement.
2
Analyze the head word of the subject phrase following 'but also'.
The subject phrase is 'each of the defense attorneys'. The head word of this phrase is the distributive indefinite pronoun 'each'.
Prepositional modifiers like 'of the defense attorneys' do not alter the grammatical number of the head pronoun.
3
Apply indefinite pronoun concord to select the appropriate verb form.
The pronoun 'each' is grammatically singular and requires a singular auxiliary verb ('is').
Singular indefinite pronouns demand singular verb forms regardless of intervening plural nouns.

Anahtar Kavram

Correlative Conjunction and Indefinite Pronoun Concord Rules
Tahmini Süre:1m 15s
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Konular

Subject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

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