Question

Fill in the blank with an appropriate verb.

The Police ……….. arrested the thief.
a)Have
b)Has
c)Is
d)Were

Answer 1

Hint: The word 'Police' is always treated as plural and not singular. It is a collective noun.

Complete answer:
As given in the hint, we can conclude that the word 'Police' is a collective noun.
A collective noun may sound singular but we use it to represent a group or a collection of people, animals, or things. Police is a word that doesn't stand for a single policeman but a group of many policemen.
For example 'A pack of wolves' and 'a flock of sheep'. In both the sentences, we can comprehend that 'Pack' and 'Flock' represent a group of wolves and sheep respectively. They sound singular but possess the properties of a plural noun.
If we speak about a police officer or a policeman, they are entirely singular nouns and are used with singular verbs.
Now, let’s look at the given options-
Option a- ‘Have’ is a plural verb that is used with plural nouns. In the above-given sentence, we know that ‘police’ represents a plural noun. Hence, it is the correct option.
Option b- ‘Has’ is a singular verb that is used with singular nouns. In the above-given sentence, we know that ‘police’ represents a plural noun. Hence, it is an incorrect option.
Option c- ‘Is’ is a singular verb that is used with singular nouns. In the above-given sentence, we know that ‘police’ represents a plural noun. Hence, it is an incorrect option.
Option d- ‘Were’ is a plural verb that is used with plural nouns in the continuous tense forms. Hence, it is an incorrect option.

The correct answer is option ‘a’.

Note: The sentence is in Present Perfect Tense. Present Perfect follows Subject + has/have + V3 form of Verb + Object formula.