Question

The headmaster and the President are present in the meeting. Why will it use "are" as verb? ​

Answer 1

Answer:

We use "are" because the subject pronoun corresponds to "they".

Explanation:

The headmaster and the President are present in the meeting.

In this sentence "The headmaster and the President" is the subject. If you were to replace this subject by a pronoun it would be "they". Hence, we will use the verb form that corresponds to the subject pronoun "they" in the verb, which is "to be" in this case. Hence, we will use "are" because it is "they are". (See below).

The conjugation (or expansion) of the verb "to be" is:

I am (First person, singular)

Thou art (second person, singular)

He/She/It is (third person, singular)

We are (first person, plural)

You are (second person, plural)

They are (third person, plural)

Please note that "Thou art" is very old English. We use "You are" even if the subject is second person, singular.

Take another example:

Shyam (???) a hardworking boy. (use a proper form of the very "to be")

Shyam will be replaced by subject pronoun "he". The verb form corresponding to "he" will be "is".

Hence,

Shyam is a hardworking boy.