Question

Rama, and not you, _____ won the prize.
A. have
B. has
C. didn't
D. will​

Answer 1

The answer is b. has

• The subject of the sentence is 'Rama,' which is a singular noun and should take a singular verb.

• The phrase 'not you' has been given to confuse the students so they would put a plural verb.

• According to the rules of subject-verb agreement, a singular noun should take a singular verb. Thus, the answer is 'has.'

Answer 2

Rama, and not you, has won the prize.

The following points explain the reason for choosing 'has' over all the other options-

1. Have- When students see 'you' in the sentence, they easily get confused and fill the blank with 'have'. However, they must note that the subject being talked about here is 'Rama'. Hence, the blank should be filled in according to the subject 'Rama' here.
2. Has- 'Rama' is a singular noun, i.e., a single person is being talked about, therefore, we use 'has'.
3. Didn't- One must understand that 'you' is not the subject of the sentence and is not being talked about here, hence, 'didn't' or 'did not' cannot be used.
4. Will- If we look at the sentence carefully, we note that the sentence is in past tense and the second form of the verb is used, which is, 'won'. Hence, the future tense cannot interfere with it. Thus, the use of 'will' in the given sentence would be wrong.

Hence, questions like these can be easily solved if one can properly identify the subject.