Fill the blank spaces with the most appropriate of options A-E:
The evidence of all the accused persons .... by the judge sitting at No 2 Assizes last week.
were disbelieved
was disbelieved
is disbelieved
are disbelieved
has been disbelieved
Explanation
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Discussions (18)
The answer is actually the option A
A very tricky question.
'Was' and 'were' are misused.
Was and were are the past tense form of the verb 'to be'.
But grammatically, was is used for singular objects while were is used for plural objects.
Observe the following examples.
1. I was at home.
I is in singular form, therefore I used 'was' as I can't say "I were at home" (makes no sense).
2.We were at home.
We is plural form hence I used 'were'. Can't say "we was at home" (sounds lame).
Going back to the question, It says "The evidence of all the accused persons". We can denote that accused persons is already in the plural form, evidence as used in sentence is in the plural form as it deals with more than one person's evidence. (There is no such thing as 'evidences') Evidence is an uncountable noun.
Since it's in plural form, we therefore say "The evidence of all accused persons 'were' disbelieved by the judge.
In this sentence, the subject is "evidence," which is singular. When the subject is singular, the verb that follows it should also be singular.
In this case, the correct verb form is "was disbelieved." "Was" is the singular form of the verb "to be," and it agrees with the singular subject "evidence." So, the sentence should read: "The evidence of all the accused persons was disbelieved by the judge sitting at No 2 Assizes last week."
The answer is actually the option A
A very tricky question.
'Was' and 'were' are misused.
Was and were are the past tense form of the verb 'to be'.
But grammatically, was is used for singular objects while were is used for plural objects.
Observe the following examples.
1. I was at home.
I is in singular form, therefore I used 'was' as I can't say "I were at home" (makes no sense).
2.We were at home.
We is plural form hence I used 'were'. Can't say "we was at home" (sounds lame).
Going back to the question, It says "The evidence of all the accused persons". We can denote that accused persons is already in the plural form, evidence as used in sentence is in the plural form as it deals with more than one person's evidence. (There is no such thing as 'evidences') Evidence is an uncountable noun.
Since it's in plural form, we therefore say "The evidence of all accused persons 'were' disbelieved by the judge.
The simple difference by which one can differentiate between the words 'was' and 'were' is that the former is used if the subject is singular, and the latter is used when the subject is plural. The word 'was' is used with a first and third-person singular subject and is the past form of the verb 'be'.
The answer to this question is incorrect because I believe evidence is an uncountable noun and it is suppose to be followed by a simple, singular present or past tense verb. In this case, it's supposed to be a simple, singular past tense verb and not plural
The correct answer is B. "The evidence" is the subject, and it's uncountable. Uncountable nouns do not take plural verbs. If the answer were to be option A, then "The evidence" will have to change to "the items/series of evidence were...".
why ain't your literature questions based on the current syllabus?
why don't you set comprehension passages in your English language questions?
and why don't we have questions on In Dependence yet?
The correct option is: B. was disbelieved
Explanation:
The subject of the sentence is "The evidence", which is singular. The phrase "of all the accused persons" is a prepositional phrase and does not affect the number of the subject.
So we are looking for a singular past tense verb that agrees with "The evidence".
A. were disbelieved → Incorrect (plural verb with singular subject)
B. was disbelieved → ✅ Correct (singular past tense verb)
C. is disbelieved → Incorrect (present tense, but the action happened "last week")
D. are disbelieved → Incorrect (present tense and plural verb)
E. has been disbelieved → Incorrect (present perfect tense, but time is specified: "last week")
Correct sentence:
The evidence of all the accused persons was disbelieved by the judge sitting at No 2 Assizes last week.
my school!
i think the answer is b
The word ‘Evidence’.Being in it singular or plural form,it is uncountable and it must be followed by a singular verb.
i.e. 1. A glass of water is needed not are needed...
pls make do with the question ,my school.
the noun in the question is The evidence not the accused persons therefore the answee is B.
