Which one of the following is correct?
Correct answer: B. A number of students have dropped the course
- A. The number of students are going to drop the course
- B. A number of students have dropped the course
- C. The number of students have dropped the course
- D. A number of students is going to drop the course
Explanation
"A number of students have dropped the course" is correct because "a number of" is a phrase that takes a plural verb, "have," since it refers to multiple students.
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About Subject-Verb Agreement
Subject-verb agreement requires the verb to match the true subject in number and person, even when other words intervene. Questions cover collective nouns, compound subjects, indefinite pronouns, either and neither, relative clauses, quantities and inverted sentences, where proximity can falsely suggest the wrong verb.
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