Subject-Verb Agreement and Verb Tense and Verb Form Pasco-Hernando Community College Tutorial Series

Vocabulary These are the vocabulary words for this module. Read through carefully and print out if possible. Don't be overwhelmed. The information will be repeated throughout the module, and there will be practice exercises.

Vocabulary subject - the doer of the action or state of being in a sentence or clause in a sentence. verb - when used with the term subject, verb refers to the predicate in the sentence or clause in a sentence. agreement - a term in grammar which refers to the consistency in gender, number, and person. subject-verb agreement - the consistency in singular or plural (number) between the subject and predicate in a sentence or clause in a sentence: a singular noun must have a singular verb.

Vocabulary singular nouns - nouns (person, place, thing, or idea) indicating only one, generally not ending in the letter s: ship (singular); ships (plural - more than one). plural nouns - nouns (person, place, thing, or idea) indicating more than one, generally ending in the letter s: (ship (singular); ships (plural - more than one). Irregular plural nouns: children, men, women, oxen, syllabi

Vocabulary singular verbs - action words or state of being conveying action or state of being of one subject, generally ends in the letter -s in the present tense: She goes, He rides plural verbs - action words or state of being conveying action of state of being of more than one subject, generally not ending in the letter -s in the present tense: They ride, They explore

Vocabulary prepositional phrases - a word group beginning with a preposition (a word showing position) and an object: by the sea, in the house, under the tree. Occasionally, a prepositional phrase is between a subject and verb in a sentence or clause in the sentence. relative pronoun phrase - a word group beginning with a relative pronoun (such as who, whom, which, whichever, whose, that) such as who is in the dining room or that will be taken

Vocabulary indefinite pronoun - a pronoun (a word that can take the place of a noun) which does not indicate whether it is singular or plural. Some are always singular such as each, either, neither, and words that end in -body (anybody, somebody). Some indefinite pronouns are always plural such as few, many, several, both.

Vocabulary Either/or; Neither/nor - separately the words either and neither are always singular. When used with the words or or nor, the verb agrees with the part of the subject which is closest. Some indefinite pronouns are based on context: all, any, none, most, some. The number (singular or plural) depends upon what noun these words are referring to in the sentence.

Vocabulary verb tense - variations of verbs to indicate time of action: past, present, future, progressive, and perfect incorrect shifts in tense - where the tense in one part of the sentence does not reflect the literal time of the action in relation to the other part of the sentence correct shifts in tense - where the tense in one part of the sentence reflects the literal time of the action in relation to the other part of the sentence

Vocabulary verb form - Verb form refers to the variety of a verb can be expressed: base form of verb – the simplest form of a verb: see, run, think the -s form of the verb – third person present form – She reads present participle – the -ing form of a verb past form of the verb – the past tense the past participle – generally the same as the past tense – the -ed form of the verb