Questions: Subject-Verb Agreement in Complex Constructions

Question 1

Which sentence demonstrates correct subject-verb agreement?

• A. The list of requirements for new applicants are posted online.
• B. Neither the manager nor the employees was consulted about the change.
• C. There is many solutions to consider before deciding.
• D. The team of researchers has published three papers this year.

Answer: (D)

Option D is correct: 'team' is the subject (a collective noun, singular in American English), and 'has' agrees with it. The prepositional phrase 'of researchers' does not change the subject's number. Option A is wrong: 'list' is the subject, so 'are' should be 'is.' Option B is wrong: the proximity rule applies to 'or/nor' — the subject nearest the verb is 'employees' (plural), so the verb should be 'were.' Option C is wrong: 'there' is a dummy subject; the real subject is 'solutions' (plural), requiring 'are.'

Question 2

A student writes: 'Neither the principal nor the teachers was happy with the decision.' A grammar teacher says the verb is wrong. What is the correct verb and why?

• A. 'Was' is correct — 'neither...nor' always takes a singular verb regardless of the subjects
• B. 'Were' is correct — the proximity rule says the verb agrees with the subject nearest to it, and 'teachers' is plural
• C. 'Was' is correct — agreement follows the first subject listed ('principal'), which is singular
• D. 'Are' is correct — any sentence with 'neither' requires a plural verb

Answer: (B)

The proximity rule governs 'or' and 'nor' constructions: the verb agrees with the subject immediately before it. 'Teachers' is the subject nearest the verb and is plural, so 'were' is correct. Option A invents a nonexistent rule — there is no rule requiring singular for all neither/nor constructions. Option C is wrong because the relevant subject for proximity agreement is the nearest one to the verb, not the first one listed. Reordering the subjects changes the correct verb: 'Neither the teachers nor the principal was happy' would be correct.

Question 3

In the sentence 'There are three possible explanations,' the word 'there' is the grammatical subject controlling verb agreement.

• T. True
• F. False

Answer: False

'There' is a dummy subject — it occupies the subject position grammatically but has no referential content and does not control agreement. The real subject is 'explanations' (plural), which controls the plural verb 'are.' To identify the true subject in a there-construction, ask 'there are what?' The answer is the real subject. Applying this test: 'There is/are what? — three possible explanations' — and 'explanations' is plural, requiring 'are.'

Question 4

A prepositional phrase that comes between a subject and its verb does not change the number of the subject for agreement purposes.

• T. True
• F. False

Answer: True

This is the core rule for handling intervening phrases. In 'The box of chocolates is here,' the subject is 'box' (singular) and the verb is 'is.' The phrase 'of chocolates' modifies 'box' but is not the subject and does not change its number. The error is matching the verb to 'chocolates' (the nearest noun) rather than 'box' (the actual subject). The strategy is always the same: mentally bracket out the prepositional phrase and apply the rule to the remaining skeleton.

Question 5

A student writes: 'The list of students who need extra help are required to attend.' Identify the agreement error and explain the strategy for finding the correct subject.

Model answer: The error is 'are' — it should be 'is.' The subject is 'list' (singular), not 'students.' The strategy is to mentally strip out the intervening material: 'The list [of students who need extra help] is required to attend.' The phrase 'of students who need extra help' is a prepositional phrase plus relative clause modifying 'list'; it has no bearing on agreement. Once you see the skeleton 'The list is required,' the correct verb is obvious.

This is the most common agreement error in complex constructions: matching the verb to the nearest or most prominent noun rather than the actual subject. The fix is structural — identify the head noun of the subject noun phrase, not the last noun before the verb. Bracketing intervening phrases is the diagnostic technique: whatever you can bracket out without losing the main subject-verb relationship is modifying material, not the subject itself.