Sentence correction — Subject-Verb agreement MCQ — 13 Practice Questions with Answers

Explanation

Repeated 'each' before singular nouns makes the subject distributive and singular. The cue in Statement 1 is 'Each officer and each assistant', so the singular verb 'has' is correct. In Statement 2, 'the officer and the assistant' refers to two distinct persons joined by 'and', so it requires 'have'; therefore only Statement 1 is correct.

Explanation

In percentage expressions, the verb generally agrees with the noun after 'of'. The cue is 'of the work', where 'work' is an uncountable singular noun. Therefore, 'Sixty per cent of the work is complete' correctly uses the singular verb 'is'. Since the reason states the rule that explains the assertion, option A is the only correct choice.

Explanation

'A number of' means several and takes a plural verb: 'A number of applications are pending.' 'The number of' has the singular noun 'number' as its main subject, so it takes a singular verb: 'The number of vacancies is limited.' A distance is singular when treated as one whole unit: 'Ten kilometres is a long distance to walk.' Therefore the correct matching is 1-P, 2-Q, 3-R, making option A the only correct choice.

Explanation

Distributive words such as 'each' take a singular verb because they refer to members of a group one by one. The cue is the subject 'Each'; 'of the candidates' is only a modifying phrase. Therefore, the only correct form is 'is': 'Each of the candidates is required...' The plural forms 'are', 'were', and 'have been' are subject-verb agreement errors.

Explanation

With 'either...or' and 'neither...nor', the verb normally agrees with the nearer subject. In Statement 1, the nearer subject is the plural noun 'clerks', so 'have' is correct. In Statement 2, the nearer subject is the singular noun 'register', so 'is' is correct. In Statement 3, the nearer subject is the singular noun 'stenographer', so the verb should be 'is', not 'are'. Therefore, only Statements 1 and 2 are correct.