Agreement-Singular Subjects

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Mini-Lesson #14 FROM THE UWF WRITING LAB
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Created by April Turner UWF Writing Lab Rules of Thumb for SUBJECT/VERB AGREEMENT from Real Good Grammar, Too by Mamie Webb Hixon.
AGREEMENT: THERE AND HERE BEGINNING A SENTENCE From the UWF Writing Lab’s 101 Grammar Mini-Lessons Series Mini-Lesson #17.
Writing Lab Semicolons.
Plurals: Letters, Numbers, Symbols, Time Periods, etc.
Pronoun Case and Comparisons
Diction: Amount and number, Fewer and Less, Between and Among
Punctuating Quotations
Diction: A Lot & All Right
Agreement-Simple Problems
Writing Lab Idioms.
Compass Directions vs. Geographical Areas
Italics/Underlining and Quotation Marks
Transitive and Intransitive Verbs
Commas with Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Elements
Writing Lab Colons.
Vague Pronoun Reference
Commas with Degrees and Titles
Intervening Word Groups
Writing Lab Hyphens.
Capitalization-Religion
Writing Lab Diction: Then vs. Than.
Capitalization—Political Groups, Departments, and Organizations
Writing Lab Dangling Modifiers.
Diction- Kind of and Sort of; Could of, Should of, and Would of
Writing Lab You - Irregular Use.
Adjectives and Adverbs – Linking Verbs
Writing Lab Capitalization of Titles – Professional, Military, Literary Works, Newspapers, and Magazines.
Capitalization – Academic Classifications
Subjects Preceded by Each, Every, and Many
Adjective and Adverbs – Common Errors
Writing Lab Misplaced Modifiers.
Possessive Pronouns vs. Contractions
Agreement-Indefinite Pronouns
Capitalization-Races, Nationalities, and Species
Verb Forms: Lie/Lay, Sit/Set, Rise/Raise
Diction- Lead/Led and Loose/Lose
Writing Lab Sentence Fragments.
Verb Forms: -ed endings
Writing Lab Lie and Lay.
Objective Case Pronouns
Pronoun Reference - Who, Whose, Which, Where, and That
Commas with Quotations
Agreement- “A/The Number of” And “A/The Percentage of”
Possessives with Plural Nouns
Writing Lab Diction: A and An.
Pronoun Reference – Relative Pronouns
Diction: Affect and Effect
Capitalization—Names
Diction: Their, There, They’re; To, Too, Two; and Your and You’re
Commas with Compound Sentences and Compound Elements
Agreement- Compound Subjects
Diction - Principal and Principle
Possessives with Gerunds
Comparisons: Comparative and Superlative Degrees
Commas in Dates and Geographic Units
Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
Diction: Used to and Supposed to
Pronouns and Nominative Case
Brackets and Parentheses
Parallelism with Mixed Series
Commas with Introductory Elements
Pronoun Case with Who and Whom
Comparisons: Illogical, Ambiguous, and Incomplete
Writing Lab Agreement-Gerunds.
Parallelism: Correlative Pairs
Capitalization: Days of the Week, Months, and Holidays
Subjects and Complements
Pronoun Reference – Broad References Using Which and That
Writing Lab Here and There.
Presentation transcript:

Agreement-Singular Subjects Writing Lab Agreement-Singular Subjects

Important Information Some nouns—especially those ending in -s — although plural in form, are singular in number and in meaning: news, measles, mumps, calculus, rickets, billiards, molasses, dizziness, and other – ness ending nouns. These nouns require singular verb forms. EXAMPLE: No news is good news.

A Bit More Info Certain words ending in -ics are singular when they refer to principles, a system, or a field of study. In these instances, the noun takes a plural verb. However, when these nouns refer to individual practice or application or activities, they generally take a plural verb: statistics, physics, mathematics, electronics, economics, politics, aerodynamics, mechanics, calisthenics, etc. SINGULAR: Statistics is a required course for doctoral students. PLURAL: The statistics on child abuse are alarming.

Examples Statistics is not my favorite subject. (In this sentence, statistics indicates a field of study.) Alternatively: Statistics show that divorce is a common practice in our society. (In this sentence, statistics is plural—multiple data about divorce.)

More Examples Certain nouns with plural forms and no singular counterpart are nearly always used with plural verbs: riches, grits, eyeglasses, manners, wages, pliers, whereabouts, jeans, binoculars, tweezers, people, scissors, tidings, trousers, minutes, tights, clothes. Example: The scissors are lying on the table. Example: Membership dues are $100.00 a year.

That’s all, folks! This lesson is part of the UWF Writing Lab Grammar Mini-Lesson Series Lessons adapted from Real Good Grammar, Too by Mamie Webb Hixon To find out more, visit the Writing Lab’s website where you can take a self-scoring quiz corresponding to this lesson