Writing 1 The Second Semester Presented by Dr. Mohamed Sha’at

The objective of the Session Students are expected to: - Write sentences with correct agreement between subject and verb and between pronouns and their references.

Subject-Verb Agreement The owner of these restaurants is/are Palestinian.(is) The main product of Brazil is/are coffee. (is) The main product of Jordan and Palestine is/are olive oil. (is). The main products of Egypt are/is cotton and clothes. (are) What do we call the underlined phrases? Prepositional phrases. The noun in a prepositional phrase does not affect the number of the verb in the sentence as it is not the subject of the sentence.

Special Difficulties: - Compound subjects functioning as a singular unit may take singular verbs: Your coughing and shouting is irritating her. Fish and chips is his favorite dish. -- A subject whose main verb is an ‘-ing’ or ‘to-’ form always takes a singular verb form: Writing good letters takes a long time. To write good letters takes a long time.

- If the main word of the subject expresses a part (some, all, most, half, etc…), the verb agrees with the noun that follows the of phrase: Most of the machinery has already arrived. Most of the machines have already arrived. - Uncountable nouns (information, furniture, coffee, gold, advice, equipment, vocabulary, knowledge, etc.) Takes a singular verbs: The information in this book is very interesting. The furniture of the house looks new.

- With intervening phrases such as: (along with, together with, in addition to, as well as, etc..) the verb agrees with the noun coming before these phrases: The captain, along with the three sailors, was rewarded. The wheels of the bicycle, as well as the pedals, were stolen. Paul, with his sisters, plays tennis. - If the subject is a noun phrase, the verb must agree with the headword: A box of groceries was left by the door.

- In inverted sentence word order, the verb agrees in number with the real subject following it. Resting on the floor were the young girls. The young girls were resting on the floor. Under these blankets sleeps her brother. Her brother sleeps under these blankets. There is a picture on the wall. A picture is on the wall. There are some pictures on the wall. Some pictures are on the wall. (Usually inverted sentences are introduced by expletive there and here).

- Collective nouns; nouns naming a group of persons or things, such as family, team, committee, crew, group, series, jury, army, etc.., may take singular or plural verbs: My family is/are happy. The jury has/have just arrived. The team is/are welcomed by the youth. Notice that the collective noun ‘number’ is singular when preceded by ‘the’ and plural when preceded by ‘a’. The number of fish is amazing. A number (some or many) of players have left the playing field.

- Nouns that are plural in form but singular in meaning, such as physics, mathematics, politics, economics, athletics, and news, take a singular verb: Economics is an interesting subject. Mathematics is difficult. - Nouns of weight, measurement, time and money take a singular verb form. However, when they refer to a plurality of units, they take plural verbs: Two dollars is what she wants. Three dollar bills are on the table. Ten years is a long time.

Nouns like trousers, glasses, scissors cause troubles to EFLLs. Consider the following example: A pair of glasses were/was broken. (Which verb is correct; was or were?) Consider the following rules: 1- If the noun pair is presented, use a singular verb. - The pair of trousers belongs to Ali. - A pair of scissors was found.

2- If more than a pair is referred to, use a plural verb. - Several pairs of shoes are missing. - Two pairs of spectacles were found at the pool. 3- If pair is absent, use a plural verb. - These scissors are blunt. - Those shoes do not belong to Ali. Invite students to read and correct the mistakes in sentences pp

Choose the suitable verb form: 1- Each student (is/are) required to take out health insurance. (is) 2- The information in these reports (is/are) not correct. (is) 3- The news about the patient’s recovery (has/have) been very good.(has) 4- Their scissors (was/were) not strong enough to cut the wire. (were) 5- The entire crew (were/was) rescued. (were) 6- The furniture (is/are) being delivered now. (is)

Polling How can you grade this meeting? A = excellent, B = very good, C = good or D = fair.

Dr. Mohammed Sha’at