Standard English Primary 4 Editing

Read the sentence and identify the grammatical error. Choose the option that shows the CORRECT word. "Neither the students nor the teacher were ready for the surprise inspection."

A 'was' (neither...nor takes the verb form of the nearest subject)
B 'are' (use present tense instead)
C 'have been' (use perfect tense)
D 'were' is correct as written
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Worked Solution

Step 1: Identify the 'neither...nor' structure: "Neither the students nor the teacher". Step 2: Apply the proximity rule — the verb agrees with the subject NEAREST to the verb: "the teacher" (singular). Step 3: Singular subject → "was", not "were". Answer: 'was' (neither...nor takes the verb form of the nearest subject)

Correct answer: 'was' (neither...nor takes the verb form of the nearest subject)

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