The delegates from Southeast Asia, representing diverse cultural and economic backgrounds, _____ instrumental in negotiating the trade agreement durin...

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

• The delegates from Southeast Asia,
• representing diverse cultural and economic backgrounds,
• [were/was/are/have been] instrumental in negotiating
• the trade agreement during the 1990s.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

• 'The delegates from Southeast Asia' –
  • This tells us who the sentence is about: a group of delegates
  • 'from Southeast Asia' specifies which delegates we're talking about
• 'representing diverse cultural and economic backgrounds' –
  • This is extra information about these delegates
  • It's set off by commas because it's just adding descriptive detail
  • It tells us these delegates came from various cultural and economic situations

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

• 'The delegates _____ instrumental in negotiating the trade agreement during the 1990s'

Let's look at our choices:

• We're deciding between different verb forms
• Some are singular (was), some are plural (were, are, have been)
• Some are past tense (were, was), some relate to present time (are, have been)

What do we know so far?

• The subject is 'delegates' – that's plural (more than one delegate)
• So we need a plural verb form
• This eliminates 'was' (which is singular)

Now, let's look at the rest: 'during the 1990s'

• This tells us WHEN this happened
• The 1990s = the past
• So we need a past tense verb

What do we notice?

• Between our subject 'delegates' and where the verb goes, we have two descriptive phrases:
  • 'from Southeast Asia'
  • 'representing diverse cultural and economic backgrounds'
• These are just giving us more information about the delegates
• The core sentence is really: 'The delegates _____ instrumental'
• Our subject 'delegates' is plural
• Our time frame 'during the 1990s' is past
• So we need a plural, past tense verb

The correct answer is were – it's plural (matching 'delegates') and past tense (matching 'during the 1990s').

Grammar Concept Applied

Subject-Verb Agreement with Intervening Modifiers + Matching Verb Tense to Time Context

Two key principles work together here:

Principle 1: The verb must agree with the actual subject, not with words that come between them

When descriptive phrases separate the subject from the verb, you need to:

• Identify the true subject (the main noun doing the action)
• Ignore prepositional phrases like "from Southeast Asia"
• Ignore descriptive phrases set off by commas like "representing diverse cultural..."
• Make the verb agree with that true subject

Example from our question:

• Subject: "The delegates" (plural)
• Intervening phrases: "from Southeast Asia" and "representing diverse..."
• Verb needed: Must be plural to match "delegates"
• Core structure: The delegates _____ instrumental

Principle 2: The verb tense must match the time context given in the sentence

Look for time indicators that tell you when the action occurred:

• "during the 1990s" = specific past time → use past tense
• "currently" or "now" = present time → use present tense
• No time indicator but ongoing action = might use present perfect

Example from our question:

• Time indicator: "during the 1990s"
• This is a completed past time period
• So we need past tense: "were"

How it applies here:

• Subject = "delegates" (plural) → need plural verb
• Time = "during the 1990s" (past) → need past tense
• Answer = "were" (plural + past tense) ✓