AGREEMENT ERRORS

· In order to have proper subject-verb agreement, you must be able to locate accurately nouns, pronouns, and verbs, AND you must be able to determine the subject and verb of a main clause.

*SO WHAT?!:

· Since you have but one chance to communicate clearly and unequivocally your ideas to the reader, you must construct sentences with proper subject-verb agreement.

· The alternative quite often leads to confusion (and a poor grade!).

A) SUBJECTS:

· Subjects are the performers of the action within a sentence.

· Nouns, pronouns, phrases, or clauses can function as subjects.

o Jesus missed the test today in History 225. (1 noun as subject)

o Maria and Esteban parked in the far lot this morning. (2 nouns as subject)

o He felt sick when he discovered the truth. (pronoun as subject)

o The teacher with a bad toupee wore hats on windy days. (noun phrase as subject)

o To fail this simple test would be a sin. (infinitive phrase as subject)

o What this town needs is a new mayor. (relative clause as subject)

*HELPFUL HINT:

1) Find the VERB first;

2) Then ask, "Who or what did that?"

· Beware the PASSIVE VOICE, in which the subject receives the action of the verb; the subject is acted upon; the subject is in a “by” phrase (The soup can was scanned by the store clerk.) Another good reason to avoid the passive voice.

B) VERBS:

· Verbs show action OR state of being.

· Find the subject and ask, “What did she, he, or it do?”

· ACTION verb: Jeremiah joked, jested, and jibed. (3 action verbs)

· S.O.B. verb: Jeremiah is a fun person to be around. (LINKING VERB is)

C) TRICKSTERS:

At the college level, our sentence structure tends to be more complex than it was when we were in elementary school. Therefore, we add certain words or groups of words to our sentences that come between the subject and the verb; these words can cause confusion when determining subject-verb agreement:

1) SUBORDINATE CLAUSES:

· begin with subordinating conjunctions (since, when, although, because, if)

· because they are clauses, they possess subjects and verbs

· because they are subordinate, these clauses are “under” the main idea of the sentence and are not the main clause

· these subjects and verbs are not the main subjects and verbs of the sentence

· so do not match, for example, the subject of a subordinate clause with the main verb

o Although her friends give her advice, Alberta has to make up her own mind.

§ “her friends give” are the subject and verb of the subordinate clause

§ “Alberta has” are the subject and verb of the main clause

2) RELATIVE CLAUSES:

· begin with a relative pronoun (who, that, which)

· because they are clauses, they possess subjects and verbs

· these subjects and verbs are not the main subjects and verbs of the sentence

· so do not match, for example, the main subject with the verb of a relative clause

· nonetheless, the subjects and verbs of relative clauses must agree with each other

o The cheerleader who has a sore throat whispers every cheer.

§ “who has” are the subject and verb of the relative clause

§ “The cheerleader whispers” are the subject and verb of the main clause

3) PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES:

· the noun (or pronoun) functioning as the Object of the Preposition does not function as the subject of the sentence

· remember: only one function per sentence

· the only time the Object of the Preposition is going to have an effect on the verb is when the subject is one of six Indefinite Pronouns (any, all, more, most, none, some)

o Jessica with the red glasses is absent today.

§ “glasses” is the object of the preposition AND has no effect on the verb

4) INFINITIVES:

· the verb within the infinitive does not function as the main verb of the sentence

· remember: only one function per sentence

o I went to the grocery store to buy supplies for my camping trip.

§ “to buy” the infinitive

§ “I went” are the subject and verb of the main clause

HELPFUL HINT: underline all Prepositional Phrases AND Infinitives; with them eliminated, your choices for Subject and Verb should be clearer; circle all SC and Relative Pronouns, too.

C) *RULES for SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT:

1) Use a SINGULAR verb with a singular subject; use a PLURAL verb with a plural subject.

*singular & plural:

(SINGULAR)	(PLURAL)
NOUN = NO –S	NOUN = +S
VERB = +S	VERB = -S

2) Use is, was, has, does, OR is not, was not, has not, does not, with a SINGULAR subject. Use are, were, have, do, OR are not, were not, have not, do not, with a PLURAL subject.

Ex: o The boy was waiting. o The boys were waiting.

o Joe does look like you. o The brothers do look alike.

3) Do not let sentence arrangement fool you; you will not be writing only S+V+O sentences. In some cases, the subject comes after the verb. (*not speech)

a) Turn questions into statements.

o Are the girls ready? o The girls are ready.

b) Do not be misled by sentences having the subject after the verb. (*here/prep)

o Here come the teams. o On this page are your orders.

o There were not any delays. o There are no changes.

HINT: say the sentence with the subject before the verb: Your orders are on this page.

c) Do not be misled by a prepositional phrase or by some word group beginning with such words as accompanied by, together with, including, as well as. (*commas)(*prep)

o That box of books looks heavy.

o The mother, as well as her children, is here.

4) Use a PLURAL verb with a compound subject having its parts joined by and or both-and, unless only one person, object, or idea is meant. (*“and”)(*“they” replaces subject)

o The owner and manager is Mr. McKee. (one person, two positions)

o The owner and the manager are in conference. (two persons)

o Macaroni and cheese is my favorite dish. (one object)***

*COMPOUND SUBJECTS: 2 subjects + 1 verb

*COMPOUND PREDICATES: 1 subject + 2 verbs

· having 2 subjects or 2 predicates does not constitute 2 independent clauses

· having a compound subject or compound predicate is a way of combining 2 shorter sentences into 1 longer, more complex sentence.

5) For subjects joined by or, nor, either-or, neither-nor, do this: (*not sound)(*no “they”)

a) Use a PLURAL verb if both subjects are plural; use a SINGULAR verb if both subjects are singular.

o Neither boys nor girls are here.

o Either Bob or Jay is wanted.

b) If the subjects vary in number, make the verb agree with the nearer.

o Mom or my uncles are going.

o Two girls or a woman is needed.

6) Use a singular verb with nouns plural in form if they express a single unit or idea, as in indicating amounts or measurements. (*similar to Rule #4)

a) numerical expressions:

o Ten cents is enough to charge for microfilm copies.

o Two fifths of the crop is in. o Three miles is a long walk.

b) *notice: There are three miles between the school and my house. (here, “three miles” is not considered a single unit of measurement)

c) also:

· news, gymnastics, economics, mathematics, statistics, civics

d) *sports teams:

o when referred to by the city, SINGULAR:

o New York has a good team this year to win its division.

o when referred to by its nickname, PLURAL:

o The Yankees need to get some better pitchers for their bullpen.

7) Use a PLURAL verb with subjects such as slacks, jeans, clippers, shears, tweezers, pliers, scissors, tongs.

o Those jeans have faded. o The shears are mine.

8) With collective noun subjects, use a SINGULAR verb if a group acts as a single unit; use a PLURAL verb if the members act as individuals. (*“individual”)(*not sound)

o The jury is a good one. o The jury are taking their seats.

collective nouns:

audience	band	class	committee	crowd
dozen	family	flock	group	heap
herd	jury	kind	public	staff
team	the number (not “a number”)

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SUMMARY

· Subject-Verb Agreement concerns number (#), not time, so do not change the tense of a verb because doing so would change the meaning of the sentence. Essentially, your choice is between adding an -s to the verb or not (+s or -s, not -ed).

SINGULAR	PLURAL
singular nouns (-s)	plural nouns (+s)
singular verbs (+s)	plural verbs (-s)
*singular 2B (is, am, was)*	*plural 2B (are, were)*
*single dish (macaroni and cheese)*	compound subject ("and")(replaced w/ "they")
single unit of measurement ($ amount, distance)
single unit (as/considered one)	single unit (as/considered individually)

*When the coordinating conjunction "or" links a compound subject, the noun-subject closest to the verb will determine if it is singular or plural.*

· Do not rely on the sound of a sentence, for we do not often speak grammatically correct English. For example, when we speak, we habitually say "There's" at the start of sentence, regardless of the subject to follow. If we realize the error at all, we do not stop and correct ourselves; we just keep talking. However, in FORMAL ACADEMIC WRITING we must go back and make the necessary changes. Another example involves the possessive pronoun "their"; here, too, regardless of the subject that preceded it, we naturally use "their" to refer to that subject, an error that needs to be addressed in FORMAL ACADEMIC WRITING.