Download Subject-Verb Agreement

SUBJECT-VERB
AGREEMENT
An SAT grammar presentation by
Steven Schillig and Calvin Liang
WHAT’S WRONG HERE?
THE SOLUTION…
WHAT IS SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT?
 Subject-Verb Agreement is pretty self explanatory:
 Your sentence’s subject must agree with its corresponding verb
 Components to consider…
 Plural vs. Singular
 Contractions
 Linking Verbs
 Compound Subjects
PLURAL VS. SINGULAR
 The most common Subject-Verb Disagreement is when people confuse
singular and plural subjects and verbs
 When you have
 Examples…
 Runs vs. Run
 Jumps vs. Jump
 Shoots vs. Shoot
 Annoys vs. Annoy
 Ex. Steven go online to check his Facebook.
 FIXED: Steven GOES online to check his Facebook.
SINGULAR VS. PLURAL EXAMPLE
 This one’s tricky. See if you can get it…
 Let’s see the fix.
CONTRACTIONS
 Same thing applies to all-wonderful contraction.
 Make sure your subject(s) and verb are both _______ (singular, plural)
 Same gist as plural/singular
 Weren’t vs. Wasn’t
 Was vs. Were
 Has vs. Have
 Hasn’t vs. Haven’t
 Ex. Calvin haven’t ever been to Swaziland.
 Fixed: Calvin HASN’T ever been to Swaziland.
CONTRACTIONS EXAMPLE
 What’s wrong here? (aside from the poorly blocked profanity)
 Let’s fix it…
EXTRA, MISSING, OR INCORRECT USE OF
A LINKING VERB
 Sometimes, you might come across a sentence with an extra linking
verb, or the incorrect use of a linking verb
 While easy to notice in some occasions, still pay attention to the whole
sentence
 Example:
 Mr. McShane have retweeted my last tweet!
 FIXED:
 Mr. McShane HAS retweeted my last tweet!
 EVEN MORE FIXED:
 Mr. McShane RETWEETED my last tweet!
AN EXAMPLE…
 Oh, Justin.
FIXED!
ALWAYS DISREGARD PREP PHRASES
 The object of a preposition in a prepositional phrase should be
disregarded when determining the tense of the verb
 DO NOT LET IT THROW YOU OFF
 Example. Ten BILLION gallons of oil (is/are) being dumped into the pacific ocean
COMPOUND SUBJECTS
 Compound subjects put two subjects together that share the same
direct object by means of a coordinating conjunction
 Example: Tom sees the turkey on the table. + Calvin sees the turkey on the table. =
Tom and Calvin see the turkey on the table.
 Notice the use of the conjunction “and” as well as the transition from
“sees” to “see”
 It is like we are considering Tom and Calvin as one plural noun
 Notice the change when the conjunction “OR” is used
 Example: Tom or Calvin SEES the turkey on the table.
 If one subject is singular and the other is plural, the verb agrees with the
closest.
YOU TRY!
What is wrong with the underlined portion?
EXAMPLE 2- WHAT’S WRONG?
COLLECTIVE NOUNS
 Collective nouns take a singular verb when referred to as a unit
 Collective nouns take a plural verb when referred to as individuals
 Example: The sheep STRAYS when the gate is open
REVIEW
 The causes of this horrible disease (is/are) poor diet and lack of
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exercise
The members of the committee (is/are) very esteemed in their
respective fields.
Sheep (strays/stray) when the gate is open.
The jury (vote/votes) today!
Steven and Calvin (is/are) not ready for their presentation.
Steven or Calvin (is/are) not ready for the presentation.
Statistics (is/are) an interesting subject
Statistics (is/are) often misleading to us, especially on Twitter.