Download Agreement: Finding Subjects and Verbs and Making Them Match

AGREEMENT: FINDING SUBJECTS
AND VERBS AND MAKING THEM
MATCH
Mrs. Hernandez
Intermediate English
Lesson 2
WHAT IS A SUBJECT?
A subject is the word or words in a sentence that tells who or what the
sentence is about.
Subjects in a sentence are NOUNS or PRONOUNS only. However,
every noun and every pronoun in a sentence cannot be the subject of
the sentence. There is a main noun or pronoun connected to the verb.
This is your subject.
It is possible to have more than one subject in a sentence.
It is also possible to have an understood subject in a sentence.
SUBJECTS AND VERBS
As you recall, verbs show action or a state of being. Every true
sentence needs at least one verb. The verb will always go hand in
hand with the subject.
To find the subject, ask what or who is doing something or what the
sentence is about.
To find the verb, ask what is being done or see what is connected to
the subject.
Subjects and verbs must agree in two things to be considered correct:
person and number.
PERSON AND NUMBER
Person
 1st (I)
 2nd (You)
 3rd (he, she, it, they)
Number
 Singular
 Plural
Remember to
 Make sure the verb agrees with
the true subject, not the words
between
 Use a plural verb if you have
two or more subjects that are
joined by AND
 If two or more subjects are
joined by OR, chose the subject
closest to the verb
HOW TO USE COMPOUND SUBJECTS
A compound subject includes two or more subjects separated by a
joining word (conjunction). If two subjects are joined by and, it is
considered plural and requires a plural verb. For example,
 Jennifer and Mary love chocolate.
Jennifer and Mary are joined by “and” so they are a plural subject.
“Love” is a plural verb. This matches.
Just because there are two or more subjects DOES NOT mean that they
will take a plural verb.
 Neither the roommates nor Mark loves chocolate.
 Neither Mark nor his roommates love chocolate.
If you have a word like “or” or something that means one or the other,
you use the subject closest to the verb to determine agreement.
COLLECTIVE NOUNS AND INDEFINITE
PRONOUNS
You need to determine whether a subject is plural or singular to determine
whether a verb needs to be.
There are some subjects (nouns and pronouns) that can refer to many things that
are treated in a singular way. Furthermore, titles are always singular.







Sand/Gravel
Class
Army
Team
Anyone/anybody/anything
Everyone/everybody/everything
Gulliver’s Travels
It is important to remember that not everything that ends in –s is Plural. Be careful!
BEWARE THE PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE
Prepositional phrases add more to the sentence, but they can
sometimes make it difficult to detect true subjects and verbs.
Ex. A stream of cold air seeps in through the space below the door.
Notice in the example that the subject is “stream.” There is a
preposition between that and the verb “seeps.” Remember, the subject
of a sentence is never going to be found in the prepositional phrase.
PRONOUNS AND ANTECEDENTS
Just like subjects and verbs have to match, so to pronouns and
antecedents.
A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. The antecedent is
the original noun that the pronoun replaced.
Ex. The boy threw the stick to the dog, and the dog fetched it. (“It” is
the pronoun; “stick” is the antecedent.)
To find the antecedent for a pronoun, ask yourself what does the
pronoun refer back to.
Pronouns MUST match what they refer to in person, number, and
gender.