Subject-Verb Agreement 3

Dan …and I say that Godzilla is more powerful than King Kong! Well no one agrees with you! But, unlike my friend and I, subjects and verbs, they have to agree. So, here are 3 final points to help you make sure that your subject and verbs always agree. Cue music!

1. And, Or, Neither, Nor. So, when two nouns are joined with ‘and,’ we use a plural verb. For example:

’ The King and the Queen are coming! ‘

But, when two nouns are so commonly put together that they are thought of as a single unit, then we use a singular verb . For example:

’ Fish and chips is the best meal a man can have. ‘

And be careful when two nouns refer to the same thing . The verb may change. So for example:

’ The new CEO and majority shareholder is coming. ‘ (That’s one person) ‘ The new CEO and majority shareholder are coming. ‘ (That’s two people)

(Have) You got it?

Now, when two singular nouns are joined with ‘or’, we use a singular verb , but be careful because if a singular noun and a plural noun are joined in this way, then the verb agrees with the closest noun to it. This is also true for sentences with either/or or neither/nor. For example:

’ A pizza or a curry is being delivered. ‘ or ‘ A pizza or 3 curries are being delivered. ‘

It’s a good thing I’m hungry!

2: Separated subjects and verbs.

Sometimes in English we separate a subject from a verb and this usually because of a prepositional phrase , which is a phrase that describes the noun, starting with a preposition. For example:

’ This bunch of bananas is ripe. ‘ ‘ These bunches of bananas are ripe. ‘

Unfortunately, this can lead to some extremely long and complicated sentences, such as:

’ The builder of the house of my family with the blue overalls in the white car on the main road just over the bridge next to the school is a nice man. ‘

However, the solution is simple! Remove all the prepositional phrases between the ‘head’ noun and the verb ! And now you know what to make the verb agree with. So:

‘The builder……………………………………is (a) nice (man).’

Wasn’t that easy?

3. Singular or plural verb with a cleft sentence. A cleft sentence is a structure that English speakers use to emphasise a particular point . They often, but not always, start with a WH word . For example:

’ What really makes me angry is people who throw rubbish on the ground. ‘ ‘ The most interesting thing I saw last night was the elephant at the theatre. ‘

However, cleft sentences often use very large subjects (what really makes me angry …is) and they often have long complements (people who throw rubbish on the ground). Because of this the verb can agree with either the subject or the complement , and in the case of a plural complement - the verb can be plural . So, for example:

’ What really makes me angry are people who throw rubbish on the ground. ‘ ‘ The most interesting thing I saw last night were the elephants at the theatre. ‘

Have you got it?

Did you get it? Of course you got it? Now for more information please log on to bbclearningenglish.com. I’ve been Dan, you’ve been fantastic. I’ll see you next time, ok? Hello? What do you mean toast with honey is better than toast with jam? Are you crazy? Winnie the Pooh likes honey…