Understanding Subject-Verb Agreement for Meaningful Sentences

This question asks us to identify the sentence that is grammatically correct and makes logical sense. The key concept here is subject-verb agreement, which means the verb in a sentence must agree in number (singular or plural) with its subject.

Analyzing Option 1: The wages of sin are death

In this sentence, the subject is effectively 'wages'. Here, 'wages' refers to the consequences or results of an action (sin), which is a concept often treated as plural. Therefore, the plural verb 'are' correctly agrees with the subject.

• Subject: wages (meaning consequences/rewards)
• Verb: are (plural)
• Agreement: Correct. This sentence is meaningful and grammatically sound.

Analyzing Option 3: Measles are a disease

The subject here is 'Measles'. While 'Measles' ends with an 's', it refers to a specific disease and is a singular noun. Nouns like 'Measles', 'Mumps', 'Rickets', 'news', 'mathematics', and 'physics' are typically singular despite their form.

• Subject: Measles (singular noun referring to one disease)
• Verb: are (plural)
• Agreement: Incorrect. The singular subject 'Measles' requires a singular verb. The correct sentence would be 'Measles is a disease'.

Analyzing Option 4: Politics has divided the country

The subject is 'Politics'. Similar to 'Measles', 'Politics' is generally treated as a singular noun, representing a field of study or activity.

• Subject: Politics (singular noun)
• Verb: has (singular)
• Agreement: Correct. The singular subject 'Politics' agrees with the singular verb 'has'. This sentence is also meaningful and grammatically correct.

Analyzing Option 2: His wages is Rs. 1,000 a day

The subject is 'wages'. In this context, 'wages' refers to the amount of money earned daily. While 'wages' can sometimes take a singular verb when referring to a specific sum or rate, it is more commonly treated as plural when discussing payment for work.

• Subject: wages (referring to the amount paid)
• Verb: is (singular)
• Agreement: Questionable/Less common. Standard usage often prefers a plural verb here (e.g., 'His wages are Rs. 1,000 a day'). Alternatively, phrasing like 'His daily wage is...' would be unambiguously singular.

Conclusion

Comparing the options based on standard English grammar rules for subject-verb agreement:

• Option 1 ('The wages of sin are death') correctly uses a plural verb ('are') for the plural concept of 'wages'.
• Option 3 ('Measles are a disease') incorrectly uses a plural verb for a singular noun.
• Option 4 ('Politics has divided the country') correctly uses a singular verb for the singular noun 'Politics'.
• Option 2 ('His wages is Rs. 1,000 a day') uses a singular verb where a plural verb is more common for 'wages' referring to payment.

Both Option 1 and Option 4 appear grammatically correct. However, Option 1 demonstrates a common point of confusion regarding the word 'wages', treating it correctly as plural in this specific context ('consequences').