Week 4: Subject-Verb Agreement

Week 4: Subject-Verb Agreement

One of the most confusing concepts is subject-verb agreement. This happens to be one of my favorite concepts, though. There are 3 rules (according to me) to remember when formulating a sentence with proper agreement:

11.   Make sure your subject and verb agree in number. As it said in the “10 Grammar Tips,” if the subject is plural, make everything else in the sentence plural (and the same if the subject were singular).

a.       The students handed in their papers. In this sentence, “students,” “their” and “papers” are all plural.

b.       The student handed in her paper. In this sentence, “student,” “her” and “paper” are all singular.

22.        Know the pronouns that always have a singular verb. These pronouns are called indefinite pronouns.  Indefinite pronouns such as anybody, everyone, anyone, no one, each, either, neither, every, other, something and nothing will always have a singular verb even when they are being used as an adjective.

a.       Everyone in the office is going to the meeting.

b.       Each of the three options has been considered.

33.       Know when to use the prepositional phrase to determine the verb. An easy trick to remember the pronouns that have you do this is this acronym: SAAMN. SAAMN (pronounced salmon) stands for some, any, all, many, and none. In this case, use the following prepositional phrase to determine whether the verb is plural or singular.

a.       All of the glass is broken.

b.       All of the glasses are broken.

c.       Some of the students are finishing their homework later.

d.       Some of the sand is stuck in my shoe.

For my grammar mistake, I remember receiving a holiday email from one of my friends who was on a service mission. Instead of the opening line reading, “Merry Christmas,” he had written “Marry Christmas.” While I found this amusing and grating at the same time, he did not understand that there was a difference.