Download Subject-Verb Agreement

Subject-Verb Agreement
Language Arts
Subject-Verb Agreement
• The basic idea behind subject and verb
agreement is that a singular subject takes a
singular verb, and a plural subject takes a
plural verb.
• Singular-one
• Plural-more than one
Singular and Plural
• When attempting to make a noun plural, you would
normally add an “s” to the end of the noun.
• dog-singular plural- dogs
• This rule does NOT apply to regular verbs.
• The singular verb ends in an “s” while the plural verb does
not.
The girl likes to eat pizza. (singular form)
The girls like to eat pizza. (plural form)
“s” stands for singular!!
Rule #1
• Don’t get confused by words or phrases
that come between the subject and verb;
they do not affect agreement.
-The dog, peppy and perky, likes to bark a lot.
-The colors of the rainbow are beautiful.
-One of the boxes is open.
-The team captain, along with his players, is
anxious.
Rule #2
• When two subjects are connected by “or” or “nor” the
verb should agree with the part of the subject that is
closest to the verb.
Examples:
1.) My aunt or my cousins are arriving by train.
2.) Neither the boy nor his friends run every day.
Rule #3
• Use a plural verb with two or more subjects
that are connected by “and”.
Examples:
1.) A car and a bike are my two means of
transportation.
2.) Lions and tigers are my two favorite
animals.
Rule #4
• Indefinite Pronouns- These pronouns are
“indefinite” which makes it difficult to
determine whether they should be treated
as singular or plural.
• There are two different categories of
indefinite pronouns.
Rule #4 (2)
• The “any-,” some-,” “every-,” and “no-”
pronouns:
•
•
•
•
anyone someone everyone no one
anybody somebody everybody nobody
anything something everything nothing
All of these indefinite pronouns are treated as
SINGULAR.
Examples
• No one wants to play with me.
• Someone is going to call today.
• Everybody likes to eat pizza.
Rule #4 (3)
• Words that specify a number or amount:
each, many enough, both, none, some,
much and numbers (one, two, three…)
• In order to determine if the pronoun is
singular or plural, you must find the object
of the preposition and determine if it is
singular or plural.
Examples
• Some of the cookies are left.
• Some of the coffee is left.
• None of the newspaper accounts were
accurate.
Rule # 5
• Collective Nouns-A noun that collects
together a few or many members of a group
to signify that all the members comprise a
single unit.
• Collective nouns are always considered
SINGULAR when they are functioning as a
whole.
Rule #5 (2)
Examples of collective nouns:
army
audience
board
cabinet
class
committee
company
department
faculty
family
firm
group
jury
majority/minority
navy
public
school
senate
society
team