Question

In the following sentence supply a verb in agreement with its subject.
The Three Musketeers _____ written by Dumas.
A) Been
B) Are
C) Were
D) Was

Answer 1

Hint: In Subject-Verb Agreement, the rule states that a verb must always agree with its subject in number and a verb must always agree with its subject in person too. Here the subject is “The Three Musketeers”.

Complete Step by step answer: In this question, the sentence needs a verb which is in agreement with the subject mentioned. Here as we know, the subject of the sentence is “The Three Musketeers” and which is a singular form of a proper noun. Thus, as per the rule, it can only have a singular form of verb.

Option A) Been – is an incorrect answer because ‘been’ is the past participle form and it always uses after the verbs have/has (present tense) and had (past perfect). For example: I’ve been busy lately. So, the use of been in the sentence grammatically incorrect and been is not the past form of the singular verb.

Option B) Are - is an incorrect answer because ‘are’ is the present form of verb which does not match the theme of the sentence. As the sentence is given in passive voice so we will use the past form of the verb in the blank. Thus, this is an incorrect answer.

Option C) Were - is an incorrect answer because ‘were’ is used for plural objects and this is the past form of the auxiliary verbs am, is and are and it is used when we are talking about two or more nouns in the sentence but as we know that our subject is singular so we cannot use plural i.e. ‘were’ in the sentence. Thus, this is an incorrect answer.

Option D) Was - is the correct answer for two reasons; first the sentence is in simple past tense thus as per the rule we need a verb in the same tense, second since the subject is singular thus as per the rule (a verb should agree with its subject in number and person) it should be singular too. Thus. ‘was’ fits both the criteria and is the correct option & answer.

Hence Option D: The Three Musketeers ‘was’ written by Dumas, is the correct answer.

Note: In Subject-Verb Agreement, a verb must agree with its subject in number and in person. i.e. if the subject is singular the verb should also be singular and if the verb is in plural then the subject should also be in plural. Here in the given sentence "The Three Musketeers" is the subject which is in singular form of proper noun. Therefore, it takes singular verbs of past form because the sentence is in passive voice. So, Option D is the most appropriate answer because it contains past forms of singular verbs. Whereas, option A, B and C do not have past forms of singular verbs.