Download Unit 2 - Faculty of Arts, HKBU

Unit 2
SUBJECT–VERB
AGREEMENT
I. INTRODUCTION: NOUNS AND THINGS
You all know what nouns are. Here are some common nouns in English:
water, air, earth, rice, sand, gold, paper, money, time, advice, courage
They are names of ‘things’ – some we can touch, and some we can’t. We can
talk about all of them:
1.
2.
3.
Water is hard to find in a desert.
Rice grows well in a hot, humid climate.
Courage is an admirable quality.
Notice that all the underlined nouns in the above examples can be used on their
own in a sentence – just as in Chinese. (Think of their Chinese equivalents and
you will see.)
There is another thing that you should notice about nouns like the above: they all
refer to things that do not have any natural shape, size, or boundary. Water is
water. There can be a drop, a cupful, a tankful, or even an ocean of water, but
it’s still the same substance, water. There’s no sense in talking about ‘one water’,
‘two waters’ and so on. The same goes for ‘air’, ‘rice’, ‘paper’, etc.
What happens if you do need to refer to a particular unit or quantity of water or
rice or paper? You’ll need a ‘measure word’ of some sort, for example:
4.
5.
6.
A drop of water cannot do much, but a million drops of water can.
There’s not even a grain of rice left in the bowl.
How many pieces of paper do you need?
LANG0010: English Proficiency Course (Semester I, 2002-3) Unit 2
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Again, this is just like Chinese. (Think of the equivalents for ‘a drop of water’, ‘a
grain of rice’ and ‘a piece of paper’ in Chinese – 「一滴水」，「一粒米」，「一張
紙」) Notice that, however large a quantity we may be talking about, the noun
itself (water, rice, paper, etc.) does not change its form.
 QUESTION 1:
Find appropriate measure words for the other nouns given above, and use each
of them in a sentence:
Air
Earth
Sand
Gold
Money
Time
Advice
Courage
So far, it would seem that at least some nouns in English are very much like nouns
in Chinese. If all English nouns were like that, you would find them easier to use,
and there would be fewer mistakes, because all nouns would then be
unchanging in form, as in the case of water:
7.
8.
9.
I see water everywhere.
Water is essential for life.
After exercising, I have to drink a lot of water.
But are all nouns in English actually like that?
 QUESTION 2:
Consider the underlined nouns in the following sentences (which are similar to 79). What’s wrong with them? How would you correct them?
10. I see soldier everywhere.
11. Tree is essential for parks.
12. After school, I have to read a lot of book.
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LANG0010: English Proficiency Course (Semester I, 2002-3) Unit 2
II. ‘COUNT’ AND ‘MASS’ NOUNS
You have just identified the most difficult thing about using nouns in English, i.e.:
how to distinguish between nouns like water, rice and paper on the one hand,
and nouns like soldier, tree and book on the other. The problem is especially
difficult because there’s nothing quite like this in Chinese, where all nouns are
essentially like water, rice and paper in the way they are used.
But at least you realise that it is nouns like soldier, tree and book that cause the
most problems for Chinese learners of English. Let’s call these nouns by their
modern name, count nouns (or ‘countable nouns’) -- nouns like table, chair,
house, car, flower, man, woman, teacher, school, month, year, etc. The other
group (water etc.) are mass nouns (or ‘uncountable nouns’).
There is no simple way of explaining why a noun behaves like a count or mass
noun (or both). A good dictionary (such as the Longman or Oxford Advanced
Learners’) will label each noun as [C] (countable) or [U] (uncountable),
according to its meanings (if it is capable of both uses). But are there any key
concepts which can help us distinguish the two, even if only roughly?
This is far from perfect, but try asking yourself this question:

Does the noun refer to something that is naturally ‘bounded’? If so, it is more
likely to be a count noun.
Think of something like ‘time’. Time is open-ended and without a natural or
inherent boundary. The word time is, not surprisingly, a mass noun. ‘Time is
precious’, ‘I don’t have much time’, etc. Now think of a bounded segment of
time: e.g. a second, a minute, an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year, a
century. However long or short, each of them has an inherent boundary, unlike
‘time’ itself. Not surprisingly, they are count nouns.
 QUESTION 3:
Does the above idea help you to see why each of the nouns below is a count
noun or a mass noun? Divide them into two groups.
water, lake, pond, sand, dune, money, dollar, cent, literature, novel, poem,
vegetation, flower, tree, furniture, chair, table.
MASS NOUNS:
COUNT NOUNS:
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III. NUMBER (SINGULAR/PLURAL) & AGREEMENT
The distinction between ‘count’ and ‘mass’ nouns is not made just for fun.
Whether a noun is a count noun or mass noun has some important
consequences for the grammar. The most obvious is this:


Count nouns have a singular (e.g. book) and a plural form (e.g. books)
Mass nouns only have a singular form
Once you know that a noun is a count noun, ‘number’ is usually a straightforward
matter of adding a suffix –s to the plural form:
A book, one book
I like to read a book
vs. ten books, many books, a lot of books.
vs. I like to read books
Though there are a small number of irregular nouns in English (like man~men)
which form their plural differently, it is a simple matter of memorizing them. What
is much more important – because it is systematic for all English sentences – is the
fact that the form of the verb has to ‘agree’ with the subject in terms of number
(singular or plural). Just what is this ‘agreement’? Work it out for yourself, from
the following exercises.
 QUESTION 4:
From the following examples, can you give a simple explanation of what subjectverb agreement is all about?
13. The boy plays football every weekend.
14. The boys play football every weekend.
15. My father works in a library.
16. My parents work in a library.
17. Tom likes classical music.
18. Tom and Jerry like classical music.
19. Each student has a folder.
20. All students have folders.
The answer you gave above is probably just an approximation – because the
data are incomplete.
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LANG0010: English Proficiency Course (Semester I, 2002-3) Unit 2
 QUESTION 5:
Compare the following data with those in Question 4. How would you revise your
earlier answer to give a more accurate account of subject-verb agreement?
21. The boy played football yesterday.
22. The boys played football yesterday.
23. My father worked in a library.
24. My parents worked in a library.
25. Tom liked classical music.
26. Tom and Jerry liked classical music.
27. Each student had a folder.
28. All students had folders.
If you think you have the right answers to Questions 4 and 5, then you have
grasped the essence of the subject-verb agreement problem. It’s more a matter
of whether you have fully acquired the patterns for subject-verb agreement (as
in 13-20), or merely ‘know’ about them. You may want to give yourself some
more practice, with exercises like the following (you can construct more of your
own):
 QUESTION 6:
Fill in the blanks with the appropriate forms of the verbs in brackets, paying
particular attention to agreement. Keep the verbs in the present tense.
29. My friends
30. My best friend
31. One of my friends
32. Most of our teachers
33. He
(visit) me very often.
(live) in the next block.
(be) a disc jockey.
(prefer) to teach in Chinese.
(spend) most of his money on CDs.
34. He and his wife
(spend) most of their money on CDs.
35. Many of the soldiers
(have) deserted.
36. One of the soldiers
(be) staying behind.
37. A troop of soldiers
(be) on the way here.
38. Each of these books
(cost) more than $200.
39. Few of these books
(cost) less than $250.
40. Most of the money
(have) been lost.
41. Most of the furniture
(have) been stolen.
42. Most of the students
(have) signed up.
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IV. THE NOUN PHRASE
While subject-verb agreement may seem at first sight to be simple enough, a
serious problem arises when the subject is not a single word but a phrase, e.g.
‘one of the boys’. What should the verb agree with, ‘one’ or ‘boys’? Should we
say ‘One of the boys is/are brilliant’? What about ‘The boy who beat all his
classmates’? Should the verb agree with ‘boy’ or ‘classmates’, and should we
say ‘The boy who beat all his classmates is/are brilliant’?
It is worth taking a moment to step back and look at the larger picture. Most
students think of a sentence as being made up of individual words. E.g., the
subject of the sentence ‘Boys are naughtier than girls’ is the word (the noun)
‘boys’.
However, the more sentences you look at and the more you think about
grammar, the more you will notice that words group themselves into phrases,
and that, however long these phrases may be, they have basically the same
function as single words. Look at the underlined group of words in each of the
following sentences. Notice in particular how the longer groups are ‘expansions’
of the shorter ones:
a) The boy is a genius.
b) The young boy is a genius.
c) The young boy who won the chess tournament is a genius.
d) The young boy who played chess against ten adults simultaneously is a
genius.
e) The young boy who played chess against ten adults simultaneously and
beat them all is a genius.
 QUESTION 7:
What is each of the above sentences (a-e) about? Which of the underlined
groups of words can be replaced by the pronoun ‘he’?
It is clear that each of the underlined group of words in sentences (a-e) behaves
like one word, as shown by the fact that they can all be replaced by the same
pronoun ‘he’. The whole group of words (rather than any single word) is, in fact,
the subject of the sentence.
Now back to the problem: if there are two or more nouns in the group, which of
them controls subject-verb agreement? Try to figure this out for yourself first.
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LANG0010: English Proficiency Course (Semester I, 2002-3) Unit 2
 QUESTION 8:
Sentences (f-j) below are based on sentences (a-e), but with one of the nouns
(highlighted below) changed -- from singular to plural, or from plural to singular.
Decide whether the verb also needs to be changed as a result of this, and if so,
how:
f)
g)
h)
i)
j)
The boys is a genius.
The young boys is a genius.
The young boy who won the chess tournaments is a genius.
The young boy who played chess against an adult is a genius.
The young boys who played chess against ten adults simultaneously and
beat them all is a genius.
If you’re pretty sure that you’ve got all the answers right, then you obviously have
a good understanding already of what the noun head is in all the above groups
of words. It is ‘boy’ (or ‘boys’). It is the ‘noun head’ because the rest of the
group is really all about this noun – ‘young’ (the boy is young), ‘who won the
chess tournament’ (the boy won the chess tournament), and so on. So, in a very
real sense, the noun ‘boy’ is the head of the whole group. Since the head is a
noun, the whole group of words behaves like a noun too, which is why it can be
replaced by a pronoun like ‘he’. Let’s therefore call the whole group a noun
phrase. All the underlined groups of words in sentences (a-e) are noun phrases.
Agreement with noun phrase subjects such as the above is in fact the biggest
single source of subject-verb agreement errors in students’ writings. It involves
something more complicated than merely ensuring that the form of the verb
agrees with the noun in number; it involves deciding which noun is the head of
the noun phrase, because that’s the noun that the verb must agree with, and
not just the noun closest to it.
The problem of identifying the noun head has its roots in the differences between
Chinese and English grammar. Imagine for a moment that English noun phrases
were like Chinese noun phrases. Then the noun head – i.e. what the whole
phrase is about – would be quite easy to identify, as it would always occur at the
end of the noun phrase. So instead of [the young boy who won the chess
tournaments], we would have something like:
[the won the chess tournaments young boy] is a genius.
[那個嬴了象棋比賽的男孩是位天才]
In that case, subject verb agreement would be very simple, as the verb would
always agree with the noun immediately before it (e.g. ‘boy’).
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In English, unfortunately, matters are more complicated, and the noun head may
not be at the end of the noun phrase and closest to the verb, as in ‘[the boy who
won the chess tournaments] is a genius’, where the verb ‘is’ is separated from the
noun head ‘boy’ by several other words. So, to identify the noun head in an
English noun phrase, you should always ask yourself, what is the whole phrase
about? Is it about a certain ‘boy’?
 QUESTION 9:
In the following examples, put a bracket around the whole noun phrase, and
underline the noun heads; also, give the form of the verb in brackets such that it
agrees with the noun head.
1. The schedule showing the jetfoil arrivals and departures _______ (be) outof-date.
2. His collection of old photographs _________ (be) displayed around the
room.
3. The recent development of new public facilities ____________ (have) led to
an increase in tourism in the area.
4. The trees in the park __________ (need) trimming.
5. The floods which hit Hunan Province recently _________________ (have)
caused untold damage.
6. The search for Osama bin Laden and his followers _____________ (go) on.
7. The new neighbour who moved in yesterday with 11 dogs ______________
(seem) a little weird.
8. The Olympic athlete with the greatest number of gold medals
____________ (be) Mark Spitz.
9. A car with four doors ____________________ (cost) a little more than one
with two.
10. The mathematician whose Nobel Prize surprised many people
_____________ (be) John Nash.
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LANG0010: English Proficiency Course (Semester I, 2002-3) Unit 2
V. SOME SPECIAL CASES
5.1. SUBJECTS THAT FOLLOW VERBS
Though the subject normally precedes the verb, there are cases where they
follow the verb instead (especially if the sentence begins with ‘there is/are’).
Even in these cases, the verb still has to agree with the subject, e.g.:
On the floor was a dead body.
On the floor were several dead bodies.
There was a doctor on the plane.
There are surprisingly few people at the concert.
EXERCISE:
Fill in the blanks with a verb in the correct form, paying special attention to subject-verb
agreement:
1. There ________________ many people who would just keep quiet about it.
2. There _________________ a quality which is universally admired in all
cultures.
3. In the middle of the square __________________ a statue of the great
leader.
4. On the shelf ______________________ many books on music.
5.2. COLLECTIVE NOUNS
A collective noun refers to a group of people or things, which forms some sort of
unit, for example:
army
crew
navy
audience
family
orchestra
class
flock
public
committee
government
staff
couple
herd
team
Collective nouns, which refer to the group as a whole, normally take a singular
verb, e.g.:
The audience is waiting.
The team was badly beaten.
The class seems very quiet this morning.
However, when a collective noun refers to the group as a number of individuals,
a plural verb is normally preferred. For example:
The audience are stamping their feet.
[Would you find ‘The audience is stamping its feet’ somewhat strange?
Why?]
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The team are very upset by their defeat.
The class never discuss their personal problems.
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LANG0010: English Proficiency Course (Semester I, 2002-3) Unit 2
5.3 NOUNS DERIVED FROM ADJECTIVES
Noun phrases derived from adjectives that describe people, such as the young,
the rich, and the homeless, always take plural verbs.
The young want to grow up fast and the old wish to be younger.
Is it true that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer?
Additional Exercises
 EXERCISE 1:
Fill in the blanks with suitable verbs that fit the context. Pay special attention to
subject-verb agreement:
Passage 1:
There __________ many articles and letters in the South China Morning Post about
the proposed ban on smoking in restaurants.
As a teenager, not only must I ___________ second-hand smoke when I
_________out eating, but I also have to put up with it when I play sports in public
playgrounds, play video games in a games centre, and when I surf the Net at
Internet cafes.
I understand that a smoking ban _________ already in place in certain public
areas; however, I see little being done to punish those who ___________ the
regulations.
Unless the government ______________ to take action, for example,
increasing fines for people who _______________the law, there _______________
little point in extending the ban if smokers ______________ to ignore it.
Passage 2:
Two men ________ been caught using a video camera to record a preview of a
film - the first arrest of its kind since an amended copyright law came into effect
in April last year.
The two, aged 26 and 27, _______________ arrested at the Broadway Theatre
in Sai Yeung Choi Street, Mongkok, during a preview of the Hong Kong-made
action movie So Close on Saturday. They ____________ caught with a digital video
camera and two cassettes.
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The new film ____________ Taiwanese actress Shu Qi and Shaolin Soccer's
Karen Mok Man-wai and Vicky Zhao Wei. It ____________________ on an
international conspiracy involving murders and computer viruses.
Passage 3:
Cinemas __________________attendance levels to double from today when ticket
prices ____________ cut to $25 for films screened on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Box-office takings _________________ slumped to record lows this summer, diving
more than 45 per cent from $386 million last year.
In July last year, the local smash hits Shaolin Soccer and Love on a Diet
together grossed $90 million, but this year the biggest releases, Men In Black II
and Minority Report, _____________ taken only half that amount.
 EXERCISE 2:
To check for subject-verb agreement, (1) identify the subject of the sentence
and then (2) find the noun that is the head of the subject. In each of the
following sentences, underline the head noun of the subject. Then circle the
correct form of the verb in parentheses.
1. Young people today (is/are) just as likely to read for pleasure as older
Americans.
2. The reading survey (has/have) some good news for those who appreciate
reading as a pastime.
Today's Americans (is/are) more likely to read to their children than their parents
(was/were).
Reading to very young children (stimulates/stimulate) them to learn to read
sooner.
The impact of reading to children at an early age (is/are) dramatic.
There (is/are) signs of a coming surge in reading in America.
Despite television and its influence, reading (seems/seem) to be coming back
into favor.
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LANG0010: English Proficiency Course (Semester I, 2002-3) Unit 2