Question

Fill in the blank with the correct option.
A few hours’ study ___________ enough.
A. Is
B. Are
C. The
D. None of the above

Answer 1

Hint: The sentences that we read and study in grammar are made up of a few specific elements that help in forming the basic meaning of the sentence. Apart from the subject, object and verb, a sentence is built by another element in grammar which helps to add the functional meaning in the sentence. This element is known as a ‘helping verb’ or an ‘auxiliary verb’. Words like ‘be’, ‘do’, ‘have’ are some auxiliary verbs.

Complete step by step answer:
1. When forming a sentence, it is very important to ensure that the principles of 'subject-verb agreement' are followed.
2. When the subject is singular, then the verb also has to be singular. Similarly, if a subject is plural, its verb also has to be plural.
3. Thus in order to find the correct auxiliary verb here which will be appropriate for the noun ‘study’, we have to see if this is singular or not.
4. So, we can understand otherwise that the word ‘the’ is an article. So, it can’t be placed here because according to the ‘subject-verb agreement’ as we discussed above, this specific sentence does not have any verb.
5. In this regard, let us see the phrase ‘a few hours’ study’ at first. The ‘study’ is continued for a few hours and this implies that ‘hours’ is in plural form. But the ‘study’ is being singular, because this is shown as a unit, which is being continued for a few hours. So, for the singular form of the noun ‘study’, a singular verb is required.

Thus, Option A is correct.

Note:
Auxiliary verbs are known as helping verbs because they usually accompany the main verb in the sentence. If we see the sentence here, 'I have finished my lunch'. Here the helping verb is ‘have’. It shows that the speaker has finished his or her lunch just a few minutes before. So, according to the rule of the tenses, it is not simple past tense. It is counted as ‘Present Perfect Tense’. In this case, if we would use ‘had’ instead of, the meaning of the entire sentence would be changed. It would then become ‘Past Perfect Tense’.