Grammar Lab

Agreement

Subject-Verb AGREEMENT

Agreement means "correspondence." Your sentences will express harmony if there is a proper
relationship between subjects and verbs.

Lack of Harmony between subject and verb:

Sarah read the newspaper at night. or...

New York are huge cities.

Harmony between subject and verb:

Many people read the newspaper at night. or...

New York and Chicago are huge cities.

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Rule for subject-verb agreement: a verb should always agree with its subject in number. That
is, a singular subject requires a singular verb, and a plural subject requires a plural verb.

Singular subject and verb:Greenink is often difficult to read.

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Plural subject and verb: The desks are highly polished.
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* REMINDER: Unlike nouns, most singular verbs end in s.
For example: The tree sways; trees sway.

In addition, there are irregular verbs such as "to be."

For example: The tree is green; the trees are green.

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* HINT: Remember--sometimes sentences have extra filler and descriptive material which add
flavour or texture. However, the essential nutrients of the sentence--the subject and verb--are not
found in the filler.

For example:

Yesterday, despite the cold weather, Sandraate an ice cream cone at the river front.

In its most basic form, the sentence is about Sandra (subject) eating (verb).

Exercise: in the following sentences choose the correct VERB.

1. Where has the toothpaste gone?

2. Dave and Chris works at the Academic Writing Centre.

3. Exams exist to make our lives miserable.

4. Together, cake and ice cream makes a wonderful dessert.

5. Trees often grow near bodies of water.

There are, however, several cases when you must take special care to achieve agreement !

A) COMPOUND SUBJECTS

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A compound subject is formed by two or more words, phrases, or clauses joined by andandor
(nor).

i) If the parts of a compound subject are linked by and, the verb is plural.

- The lioness and her cub share a close bond. (1+1 = 2)

ii) Singular subjects linked by or take a singular verb.

- Either Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Magic Johnson was chosen the most

valuable player in the league. (Only one person can be MVP)

iii) However, plural subjects linked by or take a plural verb.

- Neither alligators nor crocodiles make good pets.

(Even if we're talking only about the alligators, we still have more than one alligator to consider.)

iv) Finally, when a plural subject and a singular subject are joined by or (nor), the verb agrees
with the nearer subject.

- The heat or predators pose a threat to new born lion cubs.

(Sing.) (Plur.) (plur.)

B) SUBJECT AND VERB WIDELY SEPARATED

- (Faulty) The wall, as well as the floors, need repair.

- (Revised) The wall, as well as the floors, needs repair.

- (Faulty) The attention of the students wanders out the window.

- (Revised) The attention of the students wanders out the
window.

In such cases, you must watch out for the plural constructions that might fall between your
singular subject and its verb. The words floors and students are plural, but are not subjects in the
above sentences. These "in-between" words simply tell about or describe the subject.

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Exercise, Part A and B): Circle the correct verb, and underline the subject of the sentence.
Explain your choice.

1. Poetry and Fiction (is/are) forms of creative writing.

CORRECT: ARE

2. Onions, sad movies, or happiness (make/makes) you cry.

CORRECT: MAKE

3. The oil company informed me that neither it nor its representative (is/are) responsible for
the damage to my car.
CORRECT: is

4. Margaret Atwood, like many contemporary Canadian authors, (write/writes) novels with
political themes.
CORRECT: write

5. The whole computer package, including disk drive, printer, and programs, (is/are) too
expensive for me.
CORRECT: is

C)WATCH OUT FOR INDEFINITE PRONOUNS:

Words such as each, neither, anyone, everyone, no one, none, everybody, nobody--each of these
is (not are) singular in idea, even though each refers to someone or something singled out from a
crowd. Give all of them singular verbs. For example:

- Everybody here wants to learn more about grammar.

- No one from England drives on the right side of the road. (we hope)

Note, however, that the following pronouns--all, some, most, any, more--may be singular or
plural, depending on the meaning of the sentence. For example:

- Most of the players are injured. (plural)

- All of the hem is torn. (singular)

D) COLLECTIVE NOUNS:

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Collective nouns have a singular form and refer to a group of people or things. The following are
examples of collective nouns:
audience, class, majority, committee, family, faculty, crew, team, jury.

i) Collective nouns take a singular verb when the noun refers to the group as a single unit.

My hockey teams still in contention for the playoffs.

ii) Collective nouns, however, take a plural verb when the noun refers to the members of the
group functioning individually.

The team have agreed among themselves to go on strike.

If, however, you find this last example awkward, add an extra word to make things easier for
yourself. For example:

The team members have agreed among themselves to go on strike.

Exercise, Part C and D): Choose the correct verb and underline the subject. Justify your answer.

1. All of the figure skaters (glides) smoothly across the ice.

2. Everybody on the fourth and fifth floors (were) questioned by the police inspector.

3. Everyone, including the servants of the house, (believe) the butler did it.

4. The nuclear family (is) the fundamental unit of society.

5. Your department (pride) itself on a high degree of efficiency.

6. The budget committee (fights) among themselves continually.

In our discussion of SUBJECT-VERB agreement, we have learned how to achieve agreement in

the following cases:

1. When we have compound subjects linked using the words andandor (nor).

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2. When the subject and the verb are widely separated.

3. When the subject is formed using indefinite pronouns.

4. When collective nouns form the subject.

Exercise: Keeping the above rules in mind, correct the errors in subject-verb agreement in the
following paragraph. Keep in mind that you may come across a case that we have not covered.
Even so, using the knowledge you've gained, make an educated attempt to correct all agreement
problems.

There are many good reasons for staying fit. The loss of strength, flexibility, and
endurance that result from lack of exercise is very compelling factors, but everyone who joins
the many health clubs in this city has individual reasons as well. The people I talk with says
appearance or weight loss are their big motivation for working out. No one among the two
hundred patrons of a local health club was there for the social aspects of the place, according to
my poll. Either daily aerobics or weightlifting was what they wanted from their club, and the
intensity of the workouts was clear evidence that they were serious. The manager of the club,
along with all the members of his staff, was very careful to point out that supervised exercise is
essential for best results, but neither he nor his workers were in favour of fad diets or sweat
programs.

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
Although different from subject-verb agreement--pronoun-antecedent agreement uses
principles similar to those covered in the subject-verb agreement section.

Pronouns must agree with the nouns they refer to (antecedents) in gender (masculine, feminine,
or neuter) and number (singular or plural).

Kurt lost his tennis racket, but he eventually found it.

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│└────────┼───────────────────┘
└───────────────────────────────┘

A) COMPOUND SUBJECTS

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i) If the parts of the antecedent are joined by and, a plural pronoun is used.

- His shoes and baseball cap were left in their usual places.
- Linda, Michelle, and Audrey finished their group project early.

ii)Singular antecedents joined by either...Oro neither...nor require singular pronouns.

Has either Sean or Frank taken his batting practice today?

iii)Plural antecedents joined by either...Oro neither...nor require plural pronouns.

Neither the teachers nor the students are eating their lunches.

iv) If one singular antecedent and one plural antecedent are joined by a form of or, the pronoun
should agree with the closest antecedent.

Either the jury members or the judge will be first for her dinner.

B) BE CAREFUL OF FAULTY PRONOUN REFERENCES

i)Missing: In Alberta they produce a lot of oil.

Revised: Alberta produces a lot of oil.

ii)Ambiguous: Paul smashed into a girl's car who was visiting

his sister.
Revised: Paul smashed into the car of a girl visiting
his sister.

iii)Vague: Because Ann had never spoken before an audience,

she was afraid of it.
Revised: Because Ann had never spoken before an audience,
she was afraid.

C) INDEFINITE PRONOUNS

i) Again, the following indefinite pronouns are singular, so pronouns referring to them should
also be singular.

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Eachsomebodyone
Everybodysomeoneeither
Everyoneanybodyneither
Nobodyanyoneone
no one

- Anyone finished with his or her essay may leave.

- Nobody on the football team should assume that his position is safe.
- Neither of the young mothers took her child.

ii) The following indefinite pronouns may be singular or plural, depending upon the meaning of
the sentence.

Allsomemost
anymore

- Some of the book is still attached to its binding.

- Some of the band members forgot their sheet music.

Correct the problems with pronoun-antecedent agreement.

With five children to feed and get off to school, I find mornings the worst part of the day.
I begin waking the kids, whose ages range from 6 to 17, at 7:00. Each child pulls the covers over
their heads and refuses to get up, so I turn all their radios on full blast until ever one of them is
up and functioning. Then there were the complaints: Jill or Janet cannot get her hair the way they
want it, Marla's favourite sweater was not washed and she wants to wear it, Jeff refuses to
change out of Peter's sweat pants, Tony cannot find his books, And of course at least one of them
forgot to do their homework, so there is the last minute panic and chaos. They never agree on
what they will have for breakfast, so I always prepare five different things. If they all catch his or
her buses on time, it's a miracle. I almost always end up driving one of them to school. Anyone
who survives mornings with five school-aged kids deserves a medal.

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