Slide 1 : Presented by Nellie Deutsch Subject – Verb Agreement Learning English Online (LEO) July 8, 2010 Learning English Online (LEO)
Slide 2 : Subject – Verb Agreement Learning English Online (LEO) July 8, 2010 Learning English Online (LEO)
Slide 3 : Subject – Verb Agreement Learning English Online (LEO) July 8, 2010 Learning English Online (LEO)
: Subject – Verb Agreement The subject of a sentence must agree with its verb – a singular subject requires a singular verb, and plural subjects require plural verbs. Two ways one can make an error with this rule are by:
not correctly identifying what the subject of the verb is or
making a mistake about whether the subject is singular or plural. Learning English Online (LEO) July 8, 2010 Learning English Online (LEO)
Slide 5 : Subject – Verb Agreement Identifying the Real Subject of the Verb Learning English Online (LEO) July 8, 2010 Learning English Online (LEO)
Slide 6 : Subject – Verb Agreement Learning English Online (LEO) July 8, 2010 Learning English Online (LEO)
Slide 7 : Subject – Verb Agreement Exception: Sometimes two words or phrases connected by and are treated as a single thought, as in "Research and development is essential before developing a new product."
A particularly confusing point here - Expressions such as along with, as well as, in addition to, accompanied by, together with, including, no less than, and not to mention do not, as a rule, change the grammatical number of the subject.
This principle applies even when such expressions are not set off by commas: Learning English Online (LEO) July 8, 2010 Learning English Online (LEO)
Slide 8 : Subject – Verb Agreement Learning English Online (LEO) July 8, 2010 Learning English Online (LEO)
Slide 9 : Subject – Verb Agreement Learning English Online (LEO) July 8, 2010 Learning English Online (LEO)
Slide 10 : Subject – Verb Agreement Learning English Online (LEO) July 8, 2010 Learning English Online (LEO)
Slide 11 : Subject – Verb Agreement Note that words designating apportionment are singular or plural, depending on their context (how they are used). Such words include all, any, most, none, some, majority, minority, and all percentages and fractions. All or most or one-half (etc.) of a singular item is singular, and all or most or one-half (etc.) of a plural item is plural.
Three-fourths of the book is in Greek, and one-half of the pages are upside down.
All of his childhood was spent in the woods, so some of his habits are peculiar.
The majority [of the people] believe that the Republicans will win the next election. (The word majority is plural in this context even if "of the people" is only implied.)
Note that one is singular - no matter what (it's about as singular as anything can be): Only one out of ten people knows this rule. Learning English Online (LEO) July 8, 2010 Learning English Online (LEO)
Slide 12 : Subject – Verb Agreement Remember that collective nouns are treated as plural if the members of the group act separately and are treated as singular if the group acts as a unit. When items such as sums of money or periods of time are taken as a unit, they are treated as singular - "Fifty dollars is too much to pay" "Seven months is too long to wait." Learning English Online (LEO) July 8, 2010 Learning English Online (LEO)
Slide 13 : Learning English Online (LEO) December 31, 2009 Subject – Verb Agreement Learning English Online (LEO)
Slide 14 : Learning English Online (LEO) December 31, 2009 Subject – Verb Agreement Learn to recognize the singular and plural of Latin nouns.
Some common ones are: medium /media; crisis/crises; criterion/criteria; datum/data; phenomenon/phenomena; alumnus/alumni (male); alumna/alumnae (female). Learning English Online (LEO)
Slide 15 : Learning English Online (LEO) December 31, 2009 Subject – Verb Agreement Learning English Online (LEO)
Slide 16 : Learning English Online (LEO) July 8, 2010 Learning English Online (LEO)
Slide 17 : Learning English Online (LEO) Practice Makes Perfect Learning English Online (LEO) July 8, 2010
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