Mary Madden of Ohio _______ a fierce advocate of women's voting rights in the late 1800s. The dedication of Madden...

Sentence Structure

• Sentence 1:
  Mary Madden of Ohio ______ a fierce advocate of women's voting rights in the late 1800s.
• Sentence 2:
  The dedication of Madden and her fellow activists was rewarded in 1920, when the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution guaranteed American women the right to vote.

Understanding the Meaning

We're reading about a historical figure:

• 'Mary Madden of Ohio'
  • This is a specific person from Ohio.
• Now here's where we need to fill in the blank:
  'Mary Madden of Ohio ______ a fierce advocate of women's voting rights in the late 1800s.'
• Let's look at our choices:
  • Are, was, have been, were
    • These are all forms of the verb "to be"
    • They differ in number (singular vs. plural) and time
• Based on what we've read so far:
  • The subject is "Mary Madden"
    • This is one person - singular
    • "of Ohio" is just telling us where she's from; it doesn't change that we're talking about one person
  • The time frame is "in the late 1800s"
    • This is clearly the past
• What do we need?
  • A verb that matches "Mary Madden" (singular) in past tense
  • That's was
• So we need: was
• Now let's read the rest to see the complete picture:
  • 'The dedication of Madden and her fellow activists was rewarded in 1920, when the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution guaranteed American women the right to vote.'
    • This second sentence gives us the historical outcome
    • It confirms we're discussing past events
    • It shows that the activism of Mary Madden and others eventually succeeded

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Subject-Verb Agreement: Matching in Number and Tense

A verb must agree with its subject in two ways:

1. Number: singular subject needs singular verb; plural subject needs plural verb
2. Tense: the verb's time must match the time frame of the sentence

Here's how this works:

Singular subjects (past tense):

• Mary was an advocate (one person, past)
• The book was popular (one thing, past)

Plural subjects (past tense):

• The activists were dedicated (multiple people, past)
• The books were popular (multiple things, past)

Watch out for prepositional phrases:

• "Mary Madden of Ohio" → "of Ohio" doesn't affect the subject
• The core subject is still "Mary Madden" (singular)

In our question:

• Subject: "Mary Madden" = singular
• Time: "in the late 1800s" = past
• Correct verb: "was" (singular, past)