According to linguist Martin Joos, speakers of the English language _______ five main registers—frozen, formal, consultative, casual, and intimate—whi...

Let's begin by understanding the meaning of this sentence. We'll use our understanding of pause points and segment the sentence as shown - understanding and assimilating the meaning of each segment bit by bit!

Sentence Structure

• According to linguist Martin Joos,
  • speakers
    • of the English language
  • (?) five main registers—frozen, formal, consultative, casual, and intimate—
    • which they rotate between
      • depending on the situation.

Understanding the Meaning

The sentence starts with an attribution:

• 'According to linguist Martin Joos'
  • This tells us we're about to hear what this expert believes.

Now we get the subject:

• 'speakers of the English language'
  • This is who we're talking about - people who speak English
  • 'of the English language' is just describing which speakers

Now here's where we need to fill in the blank:

• 'speakers...______ five main registers'

Let's look at our choices:

• They vary in whether the verb is singular or plural
  • A. use (plural)
  • B. is using (singular)
  • C. uses (singular)
  • D. has used (singular)

What do we notice?

• The subject is 'speakers' - that's a plural noun
• The phrase 'of the English language' sits between the subject and verb
  • But this is just a describing phrase
  • It doesn't change the fact that our subject is plural

So we need the plural verb form: use

Now let's read the rest to see the complete picture:

• 'five main registers—frozen, formal, consultative, casual, and intimate'
  • These are the five different styles or levels of formality
  • The dashes set off specific examples

• 'which they rotate between depending on the situation'
  • This tells us speakers switch among these styles
  • They choose different registers based on context

The complete meaning: According to this linguist, English speakers use five main styles of language, and they switch between them depending on the situation they're in.

The correct answer is A. use

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Subject-Verb Agreement with Words Between Subject and Verb

When a phrase comes between your subject and verb, you might be tempted to make the verb agree with the nearest noun - but don't fall for it! The verb must always agree with the actual subject of the sentence.

The pattern works like this:

Example 1:

• Subject (plural) + describing phrase + verb (must be plural)
• "The students in the classroom are working quietly."
  • Subject: "students" (plural)
  • Describing phrase: "in the classroom"
  • Verb: "are" (plural) - matches "students," not "classroom"

Example 2:

• Subject (singular) + describing phrase + verb (must be singular)
• "The box of chocolates is on the table."
  • Subject: "box" (singular)
  • Describing phrase: "of chocolates"
  • Verb: "is" (singular) - matches "box," not "chocolates"

In our question:

• Subject: "speakers" (plural)
• Describing phrase: "of the English language"
• Verb needed: "use" (plural) - matches "speakers"

The key is to identify the true subject and ignore any words that come between it and the verb. These intervening phrases (often starting with words like "of," "in," "with") are just providing extra description - they don't determine whether your verb should be singular or plural.