Don’t, Doesn’t & Collective Nouns -our last day with subject-verb agreement for a little bit-

Don’t & Doesn’t The contractions don’t and doesn’t should agree with their subjects. Use don’t with all plural subjects and I and you. Examples: I don’t know. You don’t say! We don’t want to. They don’t give up Don’t these shrink? Apathetic people don’t care.

Don’t & Doesn’t Use doesn’t with all singular subjects, except you and I. Examples: He doesn’t know. She doesn’t say. It doesn’t want to work. One doesn’t simply walk in Mordor. This doesn’t make me look fat right? Doesn’t Antonio care about me anymore?

Collective Nouns A collective noun names a group of persons or things. Examples: army group class herd assembly jury audience flock club team family public

Collective Nouns Use a plural verb with a collective noun when the noun refers to the individual parts or members of the group. Use a singular verb when the noun refers to the group as a single unit. Example: Five dollars is too much. Five dollars were scattered on the desk.

English is a Jerk There are some nouns that end in S. Sometimes they are considered singular, like: Politics, news, measels These words get singular verbs like is, was, has, runs Politics is….The news was….Measels is…. Sometimes they are considered plural, like: Scissors, pants, the Olympics These words get plural verbs like are, were, have, run The scissors are….my pants were….the Olympics have….

Titles of Things The title of a creative work (like a book, song, movie, etc.), the name of an organization, or the name of a country or city generally takes a singular verb – even if the title is plural. Examples: The Souls of Black Folk is often cited as a classic of African American literature. “Greensleeves” is an old English folk song. The United Nations was founded in 1945. White Plains, Nebraska is home to several colleges.