1. Verbs and Pronouns

2. Subject-Verb Agreement

3. Subject-Verb Agreement
“The verb is the business end of a sentence, the sentence’s reason for being. That’s where the action is.”

4. Subject-Verb Agreement
Main Rule #1: Use singular verbs with singular subjects
Main Rule #1: Use plural verbs with plural subjects
Singular Example: Stephen Curry dribbles the basketball. (instead of dribble)
Plural Example: Good teams pass the ball. (not passes)

5. Subject-Verb Agreement
Rule #1 does not apply to the past tense
For instance: Messi passed the ball.
For instance: Christian Ronaldo and Gareth Bale passed the ball back-and-forth.
Ronaldo and Bale

6. Subject-Verb Agreement
Rule #1 does not apply to the following helping verbs when they are used with main verbs (is-are, was-were, has-have, and does-do)
For example: Klay Thompson has scored a lot of points in the NBA.
For instance: Thompson and Curry have scored a ton of points in the NBA.
Klay Thompson

7. Subject-Verb Agreement

8. Verbs: Present Perfect and Past Perfect

9. Present Perfect Tense Present perfect tense expresses:
1. The result of an action (I have fallen off my skateboard before)
2. Actions that started in the past and continue to the present (I have been a vegetarian for almost two years)
3. How long an action has lasted (“I have taught English for 14 years” or “I have played guitar since 1996.”)

10. Present Perfect Tense Present perfect tense is NOT used to express:
1. Time (replace “I have talked to her yesterday” with the simple past tense: “I talked to her yesterday”

11. Present Perfect Tense

12. Past Perfect Tense Past perfect tense expresses:
1. To indicate the sequence of two actions that happened in the past (Michael Jordan had retired twice before Kobe Bryant entered the NBA)
Kobe Bryant defends Michael Jordan

13. Past Perfect Tense: Negative Sentences
Sentence: I had finished playing guitar by the time I had to work.
Negative: I had not finished playing guitar by the time I had to work.
Question: Had he finished jamming by the time he had to work?
Led Zeppelin Guitarist Jimmy Page

14. Past Perfect Tense

15. Pronoun Agreement

16. Four Rules to Pronoun Agreement
1. Indefinite pronouns are singular
2. Make sure pronouns agree in gender
3. When a pronoun is compound, the form does not change
4. The number of the pronoun depends on to what it refers

17. Pronoun Agreement: Indefinite Pronouns
Rule #1: Indefinite pronouns are always singular
Indefinite Pronouns: anyone, anybody, everyone, someone, somebody, no one, and nobody
Example: Anyone who reads a lot also improves their writing.
Not: Anyone who read a lot also improve their writing.
William Faulkner

18. Pronoun Agreement: Gender
Rule #2: Pronouns must agree in gender
Exception: Pluralizing pronouns can avoid excluding either gender or use “somebody”
Example: “At night a student should walk to her car with a friend” or ”At night a student should walk to his car with a friend.”
Using the exception: “At night students should walk to their cars with a friend.”

19. Pronoun Agreement: Compound Pronouns
Rule #3: Compound pronouns do not change in form
First person: myself, ourselves
Second person: yourself, yourselves
Third person: himself, herself, itself, themselves

20. Pronoun Agreement: Compound Pronouns
Reflexive pronouns reflect an action back onto the subject
Example: Her determination to put herself through college paid off.
Intensive pronouns emphasize a noun or pronoun in the same sentence
Example: I will call him back myself.

21. Pronoun Agreement: Number
Subject Form
Possessive Form
Object Form
Singular
He, who
His, whose
Him, whom
Plural
They, who
Their, whose
Them, whom

22. Pronoun Agreement: Number
Rule #4: The number of a pronoun depends on to what it refers
Example 1: A person who likes a band should see them play live.
Example 2: I do not know with whom I should see the show.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers

23. Pronoun Case and Consistency

24. Pronoun Case and Consistency: Subjective
Pronouns used as subjects: I
You
He, she, it We
They
Who

25. Pronoun Case and Consistency: Objective
Pronouns as objects: Me
You
Him, her, it Us
Them
Whom

26. Pronoun Case and Consistency: Possessive
Pronouns that show possession:
My (mine)
Your (yours)
His, her (hers), it (its)
Our (ours)
Their (theirs)
Whose

27. Pronoun Case and Consistency
1) When there are two pronouns, drop the other noun for a moment to see which case you should use
For example: Sam and me went to school together.
One would not say “me went,” so that sentence should be: Sam and I went to school together.

28. Pronoun Case and Consistency
2) Comparisons usually follow “than” or “as”
For example:
-He is shorter than I.
-I hope this is as interesting to you as it is to me.
-My sister is as loud as I am.
The Loud House show

29. Pronoun Case and Consistency
3) Formal and Informal Writing
Rule: Use the subjective form after a form of the verb to be
For example:
Formal: It is I.
Informal: It is me.
Rule: Use whom in the objective case
Formal: To whom am I speaking?
Informal: Who am I speaking to?

30. Closing Thoughts
“The greater part of the world’s troubles are due to questions of grammar”—Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays