SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT An SAT grammar presentation by Steven Schillig and Calvin Liang

WHAT’S WRONG HERE?

THE SOLUTION…

WHAT IS SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT?  Subject-Verb Agreement is pretty self explanatory:  Your sentence’s subject must agree with its corresponding verb  Components to consider…  Plural vs. Singular  Contractions  Linking Verbs  Compound Subjects

PLURAL VS. SINGULAR  The most common Subject-Verb Disagreement is when people confuse singular and plural subjects and verbs  When you have  Examples…  Runs vs. Run  Jumps vs. Jump  Shoots vs. Shoot  Annoys vs. Annoy  Ex. Steven go online to check his Facebook.  FIXED: Steven GOES online to check his Facebook.

SINGULAR VS. PLURAL EXAMPLE  This one’s tricky. See if you can get it…  Let’s see the fix.

CONTRACTIONS  Same thing applies to all-wonderful contraction.  Make sure your subject(s) and verb are both _______ (singular, plural)  Same gist as plural/singular  Weren’t vs. Wasn’t  Was vs. Were  Has vs. Have  Hasn’t vs. Haven’t  Ex. Calvin haven’t ever been to Swaziland.  Fixed: Calvin HASN’T ever been to Swaziland.

CONTRACTIONS EXAMPLE  What’s wrong here? (aside from the poorly blocked profanity)  Let’s fix it…

EXTRA, MISSING, OR INCORRECT USE OF A LINKING VERB  Sometimes, you might come across a sentence with an extra linking verb, or the incorrect use of a linking verb  While easy to notice in some occasions, still pay attention to the whole sentence  Example:  Mr. McShane have retweeted my last tweet!  FIXED:  Mr. McShane HAS retweeted my last tweet!  EVEN MORE FIXED:  Mr. McShane RETWEETED my last tweet!

AN EXAMPLE…  Oh, Justin.

FIXED!

ALWAYS DISREGARD PREP PHRASES  The object of a preposition in a prepositional phrase should be disregarded when determining the tense of the verb  DO NOT LET IT THROW YOU OFF  Example. Ten BILLION gallons of oil (is/are) being dumped into the pacific ocean

COMPOUND SUBJECTS  Compound subjects put two subjects together that share the same direct object by means of a coordinating conjunction  Example: Tom sees the turkey on the table. + Calvin sees the turkey on the table. = Tom and Calvin see the turkey on the table.  Notice the use of the conjunction “and” as well as the transition from “sees” to “see”  It is like we are considering Tom and Calvin as one plural noun  Notice the change when the conjunction “OR” is used  Example: Tom or Calvin SEES the turkey on the table.  If one subject is singular and the other is plural, the verb agrees with the closest.

YOU TRY! What is wrong with the underlined portion?

EXAMPLE 2- WHAT’S WRONG?

COLLECTIVE NOUNS  Collective nouns take a singular verb when referred to as a unit  Collective nouns take a plural verb when referred to as individuals  Example: The sheep STRAYS when the gate is open

REVIEW  The causes of this horrible disease (is/are) poor diet and lack of exercise  Themembers of the committee (is/are)very esteemed intheir respective fields.  Sheep (strays/stray) when the gate is open.  The jury (vote/votes) today!  Steven and Calvin (is/are) not ready for their presentation.  Steven or Calvin (is/are) not ready for the presentation.  Statistics (is/are) an interesting subject  Statistics (is/are) often misleading to us, especially on Twitter.