There __________ a woman and two children in the house at the time of the fire.
which should i choose “was” or “were” ?
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Hello Duong Pham, welcome to our forum. The question you have posted is a typical ‘subject verb agreement’ question and I think there both ‘was’ as well as ‘were’ are possible here. Let’s see what our other forum members and coaches have to say…
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Hi Duong_Pham,
I would rephrase your sentences as follows:
- A woman and two children were in the house at the time of the fire.
It isn’t clear to me, however, whether the children were hers or not, but if they were, I would say:
- A woman with her two children were in the house at the time of the fire.
I agree with Torsten that it is a matter of subject-verb agreement or concord. In my sentences ‘A woman and/ with, two/her children were in the house at the time of the fire’ the plural verb ‘were’ is in concord with the plural subject 'A woman and/ with her children = they.
I hope this will help you and welcome to the forum.
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