SubjectVerb Agreement V 7 2 Warm Up You

Subject-Verb Agreement V 7 -2

Warm Up You will get some pieces of paper with subjects and predicates on them, please match the subject with the verb. ball nd foot a ll a b e s a B Writing plays ny Germa A lot o oks f the bo has… have … is… are…

Warm Up Look at the answers. Which one do you think is the most difficult one to understand discuss it with your teacher. 1. Baseball and football have many fans in America. 2. The Germans have a unique October holiday. 3. Germany has the second largest population in Europe. 4. The early morning news has helpful traffic updates. 5. Einstein’s ideas were revolutionary. 6. One of the books was on the shelf. 7. A lot of the books were available in the library. 8. Writing plays was Wendy’s passion.

Lesson Goals In today's lesson, you will learn: • • the meaning of subject-verb agreement; the notional agreement; the principle of proximity; some rules of subject-verb agreement.

Grammar What does the subject-verb agreement mean? Subject-verb agreement (concord) means the agreement between subject and predicate verb in Number. The verb must match its subject in number: • If the subject is plural form, the verb should take the plural form. • If the subject is singular, the verb should take the singular form. e. g. Many girls come on time every time. Every girl comes on time.

Grammar The Notional agreement The verb can sometimes agree with the subject according to the notion of number rather than to the actual presence of the grammatical marker for that notion. e. g. Five minutes is a short period of time. The crowd were running for their lives.

Grammar The Principle of Proximity denotes agreement of the verb with the head of the noun phrase that functions as subject. e. g. Either Jim or I am going to take the responsibility. Neither Bob nor the others were able to get up for class. There are many students at English Corner.

Grammar some rules of the Subject-Verb Agreement Rule 1 When the subject is two or more nouns connected with and, use a plural verb. e. g. The boy and his dog are walking by the river. Rule 2 When an infinitive, gerund or noun clause is used as the subject, the verb often take the singular form. e. g. Serving people is my great happiness. Rule 3 Some nouns ending with –s express a singular meaning, such as news, physics, economics, the United States, Arabian Nights, etc. e. g. Arabian Nights is full of interesting stories.

Grammar some rules of the Subject-Verb Agreement Rule 4 Each, each one, either, neither, everyone, everybody, anyone, nobody, someone, and no one are singular. e. g. Each one of us agrees with the travel plans. Rule 5 Expressions such as with, together with, including, accompanied by, in addition to, or as well do not change the number of the subject. e. g. The boy, together with his brother, is playing. Rule 6 When “the number of + noun” is a subject, the verb should take a singular form. e. g. the number of animals doesn’t change if the people leaves things as they are.

Exercise 1 Circle the correct words in the parenthesis. 1. Buying clothes (is, are ) often a time-consuming job because those clothes that a person likes are rarely the cones that fit him or her. 2. Five times five (make, makes) twenty five. 3. If law and order (is, are ) not preserved, neither the citizen nor his property is safe. 4. Linguistics (are, is) a branch of study on human language. 5. The chaos (was, were) stopped by the police. 6. The rich (is, are) not always selfish.

Exercise 3 Choose the right answer. 1. Every pale tomato slice, wilted pickle, and brown lettuce leaf _____ an extra 25 cents in the supermarket. A. cost B. costs C. costed D. have cost 2. Not only the Smiths but also Tonya _____ agreed to try one of the world-famous chocolate-broccoli muffins. A. has B. have C. had D. Had been

Exercise 2 Fill in the blanks with the expressions in the parenthesis. is offered to the nation as a gift. 1. A library with five thousand books______ (is offered; are offered ) hang two large portraits. (hangs; hang ) 2. On the wall______ has not been decided yet. 3. When and where to build the new factory _________ (has not been decided; have not decided)

Exercise 2 Fill in the blanks with the expressions in the parenthesis. keeps pouring in as our army advances, ” the 4. “News of victories _____ company commander said. (keep; keeps ) knows the secret. (know; knows ) 5. Nobody but Jane _____ 6. The number of people invited ______ was fifty, but a number of them were absent for different reasons. (was; were; was ) ____

Exercise 3 Look at the pictures and try to make sentences, paying attention to the Subject-Verb Agreement. Neither the teacher has been cured. The sick______ has been found. The lost_______ nor the students know about this. _________

Exercise 3 Look at the picture and try to make sentences, paying attention to the Subject-Verb Agreement. Whisky and soda is always his favorite drink. ____________ Here comes _________the bus.

Exercise 3 Look at the picture and try to make sentences, paying attention to the Subject-Verb Agreement. Most of the apples were rotten. ________ Most of the apple was eaten by a rat. ________

Exercise 3 Do the proofreading task on your handout. 1. Circle the subjects and underline the verbs. 2. Make an arrow from the verb to its subject. 3. If the sentence has a subject-verb agreement error, cross out the incorrect verb and write the correct verb form above it.

Exercise 3 Check the answers. Consult your teacher if you have something you don’t understand.

Now you know: • • the meaning of Subject-Verb Agreement; the Notional agreement; the principle of proximity; some rules of Subject-Verb Agreement.