Question

Fill in the blanks with correct words:

________ scissors _______ very sharp.

a)These ; aren’t
b)This ; isn’t
c)This ; aren’t
d)These ; isn’t

Answer 1

Hint: Plural nouns have plural demonstrative adjectives and verbs.

Complete step by step solution:

The words ‘these’ and ‘this’ are examples of ‘demonstratives’. Demonstratives are words that we use to indicate nouns in a sentence. They usually go before a noun.

The word ‘this’ is used with singular or uncountable nouns. For example, this pen and this air. The word ‘these’ is used to refer to plural nouns. For example, these pages.
The noun is how we decide which demonstrative to use. If the noun is singular, we use ‘this’, and if the noun is plural, we use the word ‘these’.

Similarly, verbs also depend on whether the noun is singular or plural. We must conjugate the verb according to the noun. If the verb does not match the number of the noun, it will be considered grammatically incorrect.

In the given sentence, the noun is ‘scissors’, which is plural. So, we need the demonstrative and the verb to be plural as well. Now, let’s look at our options:

a)these ; aren’t - Both of these are plural, so, this is the correct option.
b)this ; isn’t - None of these is plural, so, this is an incorrect option.
c)this ; aren’t - The demonstrative is not plural, so, this is incorrect.
d)these ; isn’t - The verb is not plural, so, this is incorrect.

Note: Pick out the verb and adjective that match the plural noun.