Question

In the following sentence supply a verb in agreement with its subject.
Neither his father nor his mother ________ alive now.
A. Is
B. Are
C. was
D. were

Answer 1

Hint: In terms of the number, subjects and verbs must agree (singular or plural). If a subject is singular, the verb must be singular as well; if the subject is plural, the verb must be plural. Nouns and verbs form plurals in the present tense in opposite ways: nouns add an s to the singular form, while verbs remove the s.

Complete answer:
‘Subject’ is the noun or a pronoun that tells us what the sentence talks about and ‘verb’ represents the action in the sentence. Then ‘subject verb agreement’ means that the subject and verb in the sentence should agree or match, otherwise the sentence will not sound right.
Option A) is – First, we need to identify the tense. Since the sentence states 'alive now,' we know we must use the present tense. In the sentence, there are two subjects: father and mother. So ideally, the verb should be plural. But when we use 'neither...nor' in the sentence which has singular subjects (father and mother), we must use the singular verb “is”. Therefore, option (A) is the correct answer.
Option B) Are - We have to use “are” If the noun is plural or there is more than one noun. Thus, we cannot use “are” in this sentence. Hence, option B is incorrect.
Option C) was – was is not a present tense, but past tense, here in this sentence “alive now” is present, so we have to use present tense. Hence, option C is the incorrect answer.
Option D) were – were is not a present tense, but it is a past tense of are, here in this sentence “alive now” is present so, we have to use present tense. Hence, option D is incorrect answer

Thus the correct answer is option (D).

Note: Subject-verb agreement is important in ensuring that subjects and verbs are always in agreement. The subject-verb relationship is at the core of grammatically correct English writing. A sentence's subject-verb agreement unifies it and makes it easier to understand.