Question

Neither the manager nor the Cashier were able to report on the Company's progress.

• A. Neither the manager nor the Cashier were able to
• B. Neither the manager or the Cashier were able to
• C. Neither the manager nor the Cashier could able to
• D. Neither the manager nor the Cashier was able to

Hint:

With 'neither...nor', the verb agrees with the subject nearer to it; 'the Cashier' is singular, so use 'was', not 'were'.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

This sentence tests subject verb agreement with the 'neither...nor' construction. When two subjects are joined by 'neither...nor', the verb agrees with whichever subject sits closer to it, not with the subject furthest away. The underlined part reads: 'Neither the manager nor the Cashier were able to'.

1. Neither the manager nor the Cashier were able to (option a, same as the original): 'The Cashier' is singular and sits right next to the verb, so it needs the singular verb 'was', not the plural 'were'.
2. Neither the manager or the Cashier were able to (option b): 'Neither' must be paired with 'nor', never with 'or'. Swapping in 'or' breaks the correlative pair, and the verb 'were' is still wrong for the same reason as option (a).
3. Neither the manager nor the Cashier could able to (option c): 'Could able to' stacks two ability structures together, which is not valid English; you say either 'could' or 'was able to', never both.
4. Neither the manager nor the Cashier was able to (option e, filling the fourth slot): 'Was' is the correct singular verb to match 'the Cashier', the subject nearest the verb, and 'neither...nor' is kept intact.

The corrected phrase, 'Neither the manager nor the Cashier was able to', is right because it fixes the agreement error while keeping 'neither...nor' as the joining pair.

Let's summarize:

• With 'neither...nor', match the verb to the subject closest to it. Here that subject is 'the Cashier', which is singular.
• 'Neither' must always pair with 'nor', never with 'or', and 'could' should not be combined with 'able to'.

So the corrected sentence reads 'Neither the manager nor the Cashier was able to report on the Company's progress'.