ShmoopTube

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Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by subject verb agreement. Sometimes it doesn't

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have to take years of therapy to come to a mutual understanding.

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What should replace the underlined word below?

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He doesn't know if the book or the pen is in the drawer.

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The clue here is the conjunction "or," which signals that the subject of the sentence is

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one thing, "the book," or the other, "the pen," but not both.

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This makes the subject technically singular even though we're talking about two things.

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We're not talking about some fancy pen-book combo deal that can be read and written with

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simultaneously.

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Since the subject is singular, we know we're looking for a singular verb to go along with it.

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Therefore, we can cross (B) off the list, since "are" is about as plural as it gets.

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(D) is a no-go for the same reason. "Were" is plural and just doesn't fit here.

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Choice (C) get a little closer, since "was" is singular. However, it still doesn't totally

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work because it has some tense issues.

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"He doesn't know" is in the present tense, so the verb we're looking for has to be present

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tense as well.

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"Was" is in the past tense, so it unfortunately doesn't fit the bill.

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This brings us back to choice (A). The original "is" is singular and present tense, suiting our every need.

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Now, what we really want to know is why this guy doesn't just open the drawer to find out

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what's in it.

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Is it really worth sitting around and mulling over?

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