Agreement Between Subject and Verb Help (page 2)

Introduction to Subject Verb Agreement

In any list of common errors in English, lack of agreement between subject and verb ranks high. For example:

The berries in my cereal tastes so sweet.

To correct an agreement error, you need to identify both the subject and the verb. Whenever possible, start by identifying the verb. In the example sentence, the verb is tastes. Then you can ask, what tastes? The berries tastes. Oops! You just found the error. Berries is a plural subject and the verb must agree with it. Decide which is correct:

Berries tastes.

Berries taste.

Of course it is the latter.

In addition, just ahead, you will discover how the times (tenses) of verbs must be consistent and logical as verbs follow one another. What's wrong with the following?

Yesterday, I reprimanded the children when they run into the street.

Obviously, yesterday and reprimanded indicate past time, but run is in the present time. Change run to the past time—ran:

Yesterday, I reprimanded the children when they ran into the street.

Subject Verb Agreement Practice and Answers

Practice

In the following paragraphs, check the tenses of all the verbs for consistency of time. Find the one verb in each paragraph that needs to be corrected.

Paragraph 1

Children are not always happy to play alone. Does that mean that parents have to devote all their time to playing with their children? No, it didn't. Certain techniques work to encourage children to play on their own.

Paragraph 2

In 1999, The Academy of Pediatrics provided some guidelines for children and TV. They suggest that children under two years old should not watch TV. They advised that even older children should not watch TV before bedtime. Instead, they said that parents should read to children, or children might read to themselves and with their parents.

Answers

Practice

In each of the following sentences, find the verb (action word). Label each verb present, past, or future. The first one is done for you.

1. A consumer quickly learns that "living green" is not easy.
2. I will avoid plastic packaging as much as possible. __________
3. My family turned off the lights all over the house. __________
4. Toby decided to cycle to work. __________
5. Marilyn's child uses much less hand towels than my child does. __________
6. He eats lunch at the same time every day. __________
7. Our three children will play together tomorrow. __________
8. They ate lunch in the park. __________
9. I collected shells on the beach. __________
10. I keep a scrapbook for each child. __________
11. You will ask yourself some important questions before the election. __________
12. The law student completed his final exam. __________
13. David played the guitar in the band Neville Blues. __________
14. Aidan will start school next year. __________
15. The car stops at every yellow light. __________

Subject and Verb Agreement in Number Practice and Answers

Practice

For each of the following sentences, see if there is agreement in number between the subject and verb. Correct any errors in agreement.

1. House prices changes every month.



2. The Blake family go camping every summer.



3. The painter and his hired men takes time to do a very neat job.



4. Interferences such as a phone call or visitor keeps me from finishing my work.



5. My friend, with his children in tow, take a one-mile walk each morning.



6. An extraordinary new development in manufacturing clothes give us bamboo fiber.



7. Bamboo fiber rate very high not only as eco-friendly but for being revolutionary for many reasons.



8. Some of the advantages of bamboo fabric includes its strength and softness.



9. Bamboo fabric also pay great dividends to the environment.



10. As it grows, bamboo plants gives us clean air, consumes carbon dioxide, and returns oxygen to the environment.

Answers

Determining Agreement with Prepositional Phrases

When you speak or write a simple sentence, it's easy to match the correct verb to the subject:

A bully threatens the child.

In the preceding sentence, the verb is clear: threatens. Who did the threatening? The bully, or subject, did the threatening. A singular verb (threatens) agrees with a singular subject (bully). What happens when you add prepositional phrases, or interrupting words? The sentence becomes more complicated, and unless you are very observant, agreement is easily lost.

A bully who is in the same classes threaten the child.

A bully who is in the same classes threatens the child.

Some writers would be fooled by the closest word to the verb, that is, classes. Classes is plural, so the verb must be plural: threaten, right? No, you need to find the subject. Is the word classes the subject? Do they threaten the child? No, it's the bully (singular subject) who threatens the child.

Find the subject and the verb in the following example. Does the verb agree with the subject in number?

A woman in workout clothes walk into the gym.

What is the verb? Walk is the verb. Who walks: Does the woman walk? Or do the clothes walk? Of course, the woman walks. Woman is the singular subject. That fact makes the original sentence incorrect. The following is the correct sentence:

A woman in workout clothes walks into the gym.

When you are unsure if the verb should be singular or plural, use the following hint. Forget about all other elements of the sentence and do this: find the verb and then ask yourself who or what does that.

Today, forward-thinking organizations in this country focuses on customer service.

Let's think this through using the preceding hint. What is the verb? Focuses is the singular verb. What focuses? Organizations is the plural subject. Do we have an agreement issue? The answer is yes. The phrase in this country comes between the subject and verb, and since the word country is singular, we fall into the agreement trap.

In the next section, you will learn much more about these prepositional phrases. Until then, just remember to find the verb first and the subject will fall into place.