Subject-Verb Agreement English 8

Quick Review… Q: What is the subject of a sentence? A: Who/What the sentence is about Q: What is a verb? A: A word that expresses action or a state of being Q: What is a verb phrase? A: A main verb with one or more helping verbs

A verb must agree with its subject in number. Number refers to whether a word is singular or plural. Q: What does singular mean? Q: What does plural Mean?

So In Other Words… A singular subject has to have a singular verb and a plural subject has to have a plural verb. Singular subjects don’t like plural verbs and plural verbs don’t like singular subjects.

Most nouns that end in s or es are plural. Example: artists brushes HOWEVER most verbs that end in s are considered singular. Example: paints displays

Here are Some Examples of Why S-V Agreement is Important… The new student eat lunch alone everyday. Student is singular, but eat is plural. No agreement here.

The new student eat lunch alone everyday. What can we do to make the verb eat agree in number with the subject student?

Add an S! Remember…Singular verbs end in “S”. Now…Let’s try it again… The new student eats lunch alone. (singular) (singular) Agreement!

Some Practice… Fix the following sentences so that the subjects and verbs agree… He like the song by Taylor Swift. -What’s wrong with this sentence? - Is the verb singular or plural? -How should it read?

He likes the song by Taylor Swift. The boys enjoys playing XBOX. The boys enjoy playing XBOX. (plural) The teenagers drives too fast. The teenagers drive too fast. (plural) He run super fast. He runs super fast. (singular) Justin Timberlake sing a lot of songs. Justin Timberlake sings a lot of songs. (singular)

The same goes for helping verbs… Helping verbs ending in s are usually singular and all others are usually plural. Examples: Has Is = singular Have Are = plural Madonna are a singer. No Agreement! The girls is happy.

One Last Thing… Use the contraction doesn’t with all singular subjects except I and you. Use the contraction don’t with all plural subjects and the pronouns I and you. You doesn’t do your homework. Bob don’t study. NO AGREEMENT!