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Do/Does You Understand
Subject-Verb Agreement? |
For VOA Learning English, this is Everyday Grammar.
This week we are going to talk about problems with
subject-verb agreement. Basically, subjects and verbs
must agree in number. If the subject is plural, its verb
also must be plural. For example, you would not say,
“The dog are friendly” because the subject dog is
singular and the verb are is plural. The sentence
should, of course, be, “The dog is friendly.”
This is an easy example. But subject-verb agreement gets
much more difficult, especially in sentences with
complex subjects or when the subject is separated from
its verb.
Compound subjects
Let’s start with compound subjects. A compound subject
is two or more individual nouns connected into a larger
noun phrase. For example, “Sherry and her friends from
Florida are coming to visit.” The key word here is and.
“Sherry and her friends from Florida” is the compound
subject. When you have two or more subjects connected by
and, use a plural verb. “Salt and pepper are popular
condiments.” However, if you have two singular subjects
connected by the word or, use a singular verb. For
example, “My mother or my father drives me to school
every day.”
Gerund subjects
Now let’s look at gerunds. A gerund is the –ing form of
a verb that acts as a noun. Gerund subjects are
singular. For example, “Running is fun.” The gerund is
running. A longer gerund phrase is still singular, even
if the phrase ends with a plural noun. For example,
“Running with my friends is fun.” You can learn more
about gerunds in our episode on gerunds and infinitives.
Group nouns
Group nouns, also called collective nouns, can also be
confusing. These are nouns like committee, staff,
family, and crew. Group nouns suggest more than one
person, but they are still singular for grammatical
purposes, such as, “My family is here” or “The new staff
starts tomorrow.”
Americans use a singular verb after a group noun. The
British, on the other hand, use both singular and plural
verbs after group nouns. So, you might hear someone from
the UK say, “The team are winning” or “The team is
winning.”
Country names
Country names, even if they end in –s, are still
singular. For example, “The Philippines is a country in
Asia.” However, if you are speaking about people of the
country, use the plural. For example, “The Filipinos are
friendly.”
The United States is a singular noun. But this was not
always true. Before the American Civil War in the 1860s,
many people said, “The United States are,” instead of
“The United States is”.
Civil War historian Shelby Foote said the change from
are to is shows a change in American thinking. Before
the Civil War, many people thought of the United States
as a collection of independent states. After the Civil
War, more Americans thought of themselves as a single
country. As Mr. Foote famously said, the Civil War “made
us an is.”
Words that are always singular
Some common adjectives and pronouns are always singular.
Indefinite pronouns ending in –body, -one, and –thing
are never plural. For example, “Everyone who drives to
work faces heavy traffic.”
Distributive words like each and every are always
singular. For example, “Every student and teacher works
very hard.” Even though there are two nouns connected by
and, the verb is still singular following every.
Each and every often confuse even native English
speakers. For this reason, they are a popular topic for
makers of standardized tests like the SAT. For example,
“Each of the boys has his own book.” A lot of Americans
would say, “Each of the boys have their own book.” Both
ways are acceptable in everyday conversation. But in
formal writing and standardized tests, the first
sentence is more correct: each makes the sentence
singular, regardless of what follows it. For more on
this topic, see our episode, Problems with Pronouns and
Gender.
Test maker tricks
Test makers often create trick questions by separating
the subject and the verb, hoping to mislead test takers
into choosing the wrong answer.
Here is a rather extreme example of subject-verb
separation: “Everybody who has ever gone on vacation to
Indonesia or the Philippines knows that the water there
is warm.” In this sentence the subject everyone is
separated from the main verb knows by a long subordinate
clause. But the rule is the same: every makes the
subject singular, no matter how far away the main verb
may be.
Also, be careful with the word none. In very formal
grammar, none is a contraction for the singular not one.
It is common to use none with both singular and plural
verbs. You will hear, “None of you are listening” and
“None of you is listening.” But in very formal grammar,
none is only used with singular verbs.
Words that are always plural
There are a few English words that are always plural.
The most common ones are glasses (when referring to eye
glasses), trousers, pants, scissors, clothes and police.
In addition, the names of some academics subjects are
always plural such as physics, mathematics, and
economics.
The bottom line
Subject-verb agreement is the foundation of grammar. The
most important thing to remember is this: subjects and
verbs are sometimes separated. Don’t examine grammar
with tunnel vision. Slow down, step back and look at the
whole sentence in context.
I’m Jonathan Evans.
Adam Brock wrote this story for VOA Learning English.
Ashley Thompson, Kathleen Struck, and Jill Robbins were
the editors. |
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