Transcript Subject Verb Agreement

Subject Verb Agreement
Isn’t it nicer when we all agree?
(Info is located on pages 141-159
for sophomores,
106-120 for seniors)
Singular and Plural Number
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When a word refers to one person or thing, it
is singular. When a word refers to more than
one it is plural.
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One of the Normans was not wearing his
jersey.
Several of the Normans were not wearing
their jerseys.
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Collective nouns may be singular or
plural
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The class has a sub. (class is a unit and is
singular)
Some examples of collective nouns are: army,
club, family, flock, group, herd. (pg 153)
Agreement of Subject and Verb
A verb agrees with its subject in number
 Singular subjects take singular verbs
 Plural subjects take plural verbs
Ex.
 Ms. Goler teaches at Beverly.
 The administrators work at Beverly.
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Singular Pronouns (you’ll see this
twice, so know that it’s important!)
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Each,
either,
neither,
one,
everyone,
everybody,
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no one,
nobody,
anyone,
anybody,
someone,
somebody.
Plural Pronouns
Several
 Few
 Both
 Many
Ex.
Several of the students were on the track
team.
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Some Pronouns can be singular and
plural depending upon meaning of
sentence. These are:
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Some
All
Any
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Most
None
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(See page 147)
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Compound Subject
Most compound subjects joined by and
take a plural verb.
Freshmen and sophomores are considered
underclassmen.
 Singular subjects joined by or / nor take a
singular verb.
Neither Beverly Hills nor Santa Monica is a bad
place to live.
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Compound Subject Trick
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When a singular and a plural are joined by
or/ nor, the verb agrees with the nearer
subject.
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Either the boy or his sisters were up to
something. (sisters were)
Neither the cupcakes nor the lemonade
seems sweet enough. (lemonade seems)
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When a subject follows a verb. . .
Be careful to anticipate the subject and make
sure that the verb agrees:
Trick: Flip around the sentence to figure out
which verb must be used. . .
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Here are the brushes that you need.
There is the boy in the family.
Don’t and doesn’t must agree with the
subject of the sentence.
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I don’t have a clue.
You don’t need my permission to use the
stapler.
It doesn’t look good when you don’t wear
socks.
They don’t feel nervous about the test.
More to follow on this with:
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Pronoun and Antecedent Agreement.
I bet you can’t wait to agree even more. . .
Seniors: Please do exercises beginning on
page 108 :1, 2 and 3 for Monday’s class.