Question

a number of boys ___there ( was/were )
subject verb agreement​

Answer 1

The blank will be correctly filled as follows:

A number of boys were there.

Subject/Verb Agreement

• Both the words 'was' and 'were' are in the past tense but their usage according to a sentence is different.

• In English Grammar, according to the subject-verb agreement, we will use singular form of verb with a singular subject. On the other hand, plural form of verb will be used with a plural subject.

• As the subject 'boys' is plural, hence we need to use the plural form of the verb which is 'were'.