Which sentence demonstrates correct subject-verb agreement?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: C. The collection of rare New Zealand flora has been donated to the botanical institute.
- Step 1: The subject of the sentence is the singular collective noun 'collection', not the plural prepositional object 'flora'. Step 2. Therefore, the singular auxiliary verb 'has' is required. Answer: The collection of rare New Zealand flora has been donated to the botanical institute. Why not the others: 'Have', 'were', and 'are' erroneously agree with the intervening plural noun phrase.
Practise more Formal Writing, Language Mechanics, Syntax and Cohesion.
Free questions with an explanation for every one, and full timed National Certificate of Educational Achievement mock tests.
More Formal Writing, Language Mechanics, Syntax and Cohesion questions
- Which of the following is an example of a comma splice error?
- What punctuation mark is used correctly to join two closely related independent clauses without a coordinating conjunction?
- What is the grammatical function of an adverbial clause in formal essay writing?
- Which of the following sentences uses the active voice?
- What is 'nominalisation' in academic and formal prose?
- Which of the following contains a dangling modifier?