Download About Verbs and Subject-Verb Agreement

Editing 2: More About Verbs and Subject-Verb Agreement
The Principal Parts of Verbs:
1. Present
2. Past
3. Past Participle -- used with the helping verbs have, has, had, is, are, was, were
4. Present Participle -- the present tense of the verb plus -ing.
Regular Verbs
Verbs that form their past tense and past participles by adding -d or -ed to the present form, like
this:
Present
Ask
Drop
Raise
Past
asked
dropped
raised
Past Participle
asked
dropped
raised
Present Participle
asking
dropping
raising
Irregular Verbs
Verbs that do not follow the pattern for regular verbs. They can have many different forms for
the past tense and past participle. Here are some common irregular verbs:
Present
Become
Begin
Break
Bring
Catch
Drink
Eat
Feel
Get
Go
Know
Lay
Lose
Read
Run
Say
See
Shake
Take
Think
Wear
Write
Past
became
began
broke
brought
caught
drank
ate
felt
got
went
knew
laid
lost
read
ran
said
saw
shook
took
thought
wore
wrote
Past Participle
become
begun
broken
brought
caught
drunk
eaten
felt
got, gotten
gone
known
laid
lost
read
run
said
seen
shaken
taken
thought
worn
written
Present Participle
becoming
beginning
breaking
bringing
catching
drinking
eating
feeling
getting
going
knowing
laying
losing
reading
running
saying
seeing
shaking
taking
thinking
wearing
writing
Nonstandard and Standard Verbs
Many of us use nonstandard English with our families and friends. It is important to know the
difference between standard and nonstandard English. Expressions such as it ain't, we has, I be,
or he don't are examples of nonstandard English.
There are three irregular verbs which often cause special problems for students who are used to
speaking in nonstandard English. These are be, do, and have. Nonstandard English often uses
forms such as I be (instead of I am), you was (instead of you were), they has (instead of they
have), he do (instead of he does), and she done (instead of she did). Here are the correct present
and past tense forms of these verbs:
Present Tense
I am
You are
He, she, it is
We are
You are
They are
Past Tense
I was
You were
He, she, it was
I do
You do
He, she, it does
We do
You do
They do
I did
You did
He, she, it did
We did
You did
They did
I have
You have
He, she, it has
We have
You have
They have
I had
You had
He, she, it had
We had
You had
They had
We were
You were
They were
Subject-Verb Agreement
In a correctly written sentence, the subject and verb agree (match) in number. Singular subjects
should have singular verbs and plural subjects should have plural verbs.
There are four types of situations that can pose problems in subject-verb agreement:
1. Subject and verb separated by a prepositional phrase -- Cross out the prepositional phrases
to find the subject, then make the verb agree with the subject -- not a word in the
prepositional phrase.
2. Verb coming before the subject -- Because subjects usually come before verbs in English, it
can sometimes be confusing when the verb comes first. To find the subject, find the verb and
then ask "Who?" or "What?".
3. Indefinite pronoun subjects -- These indefinite pronouns always take singular verbs:
each
either
neither
one
anyone
everyone
someone
no one
anybody
everybody
somebody
nobody
anything
everything
something
nothing
4. Compound subjects -- These are usually two or more subjects joined by and, and they require
a plural verb.
©ACW, Mountain View College, 2014