Subject/ Verb Agreement

Subject/ Verb Agreement

What does a Sentence Contain? • Capital letter at the beginning of a sentence. • A subject • A verb • Proper punctuation

Sample Sentence The girl sells sea shells down by the sea shore.

Subject/Verb Agreement • Subjects and verbs must agree • Singular subjects need singular verbs • Plural subjects need plural verbs

Which sounds best to you? • Joey is/are calling. • The boys has/have broken that window once before. • Sheila likes/like her new car. • Cody thinks/think a lot. • The teachers deserves/deserve decent pay. • The clouds moves/move slowly. • The books is/are over there. • Larry gets/get confused easily. • Chely sings/sing well. • We understands/understand the dilemma.

Identifying The Subject • Reduce the sentence by crossing out everything but the subject and the verb The chopsticks my grandmother bought me for my birthday is/are on the table. The chopsticks my grandmother bought me for my birthday is/are on the table.

Identifying The Subject • Reduce the sentence by crossing out everything but the subject and the verb • My brother and his friends needs/need a ride to the baseball game later. • My parents admits/admit they forgot about the baseball game and made other plans.

Identifying The Subject • Reduce the sentence by crossing out everything but the subject and the verb • My brother and his friends needs/needa ride to the baseball game later. • My parents admits/admit they forgot about the baseball game and made other plans.

Subjects That are Always Singular

Subjects That are Always Singular • Titles ending in S • Money and measurements • Pronouns • When groups are acting as one. Such as, family, class, jury, committee, or herd.

Subjects That are Always Plural • Both • Few • Many Several Nouns such as: scissors, eye glasses, shears, pants, tweezers, trousers.

Practice • Everyone breaks down and cries/cry once in awhile. • Everybody knows/know her! • Both of them knows/ know they are wrong. • Several people needs/need scholarships for school, so it is best to apply for as many as possible to increase your chances of getting them.

Compound Sentences Using “And” When combining two subjects with “and”, the subjects then become plural. Roseanna and Kyle are getting married.

Compound Sentences Using “And” The two subjects joined together with the word and become plural unless they are referring to one subject. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenixis a good book. My friend and classmate is good at math.

Compound Sentences Using “And” • When combining two subjects with “and”, the subjects then become plural. • The two subjects joined together with the word and” become plural unless they are referring to one subject. • Choose the correct answer that best fits the sentence: • Jonathan and my classmate is/are coming over. • My friend and neighbor is/are driving to Chicago this weekend.

Compound Sentences Using “Or” • When two subjects are joined together with “or” or “nor” the verb agrees with the subject closest to it. The dog nor the flowershave any water.

Compound Sentences Using “Or” • When two subjects are joined together with “or” or “nor” the verb agrees with the subject closest to it. • Choose the correct answer that best fits the sentence: • It isn’t likely that the teacher or the students is/are going to be unhappy about the weather today, it is beautiful outside! • The students nor the teacher was/were disappointed about the fieldtrip.

Here, There and It • Here and There- When the sentence begins with Here or There, the subject follows the verb and controls whether the verb is plural Here is my excuse as to why I cannot come into work today. There are two children here at home who are sick and need my attention. • It is always singular. It is my responsibility to care for my children.

Overview My sister Maria is/are eighteen years old. Next week she will be leaving for college. My parents admits/admit to my brother and I that they is/are sad, but they is/are trying to keeps/keep a happy face on for my sister. The family has/have decided to drive together to see Maria off to school. Both my brother and I have/has arranged to take time off of work and school for this occasion. I am/are proud of my sister. Even though I will miss her a lot, I am happy to see her going away to school to get a good education.

Resources http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/sv_agr.htm http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/eslsubverb.html Tutorial Center

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Subject/ Verb Agreement