1. SUBJECT VERB AGREEMENT

2. INTRODUCTION ➲ The subject of a sentence is the person, place, thing, or idea that is doing or being something. ➲ A word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence, and forming the main part of the predicate of a sentence, such as hear, become, happen.

3. INTRODUCTION ➲ This presentation contains maintaining agreement between subjects and verbs. ➲ Basic rule of subject verb agreement is, singular subjects need singular verbs and plural subjects need plural verbs.  Eg. No. 1: My brother is nutritionist  Eg. No. 2: My sisters are mathematicians. We will discuss about twelve rules included in subject verb agreement.

4. INTRODUCTION Both Democrats and Republicans is electing a new leader.

5. This example is wrong. Here, the subject is 'Democrats and Republicans'. It is a plural subject, so we want to use plural verb. Instead of 'is' we should use 'are' and the sentence will be: 'Both Democrats and Republicans are electing a new leader.'

6. INTRODUCTION

7. Rule 1. Agreement for Indefinite pronouns as subjects ➲ An indefinite pronoun does not refer to any specific person, thing or amount. It is vague and "not definite". ➲ Indefinite pronouns are: Anyone, everyone, someone, no one, nobody etc. ➲ Some indefinite pronouns are always singular and, therefore, requires a singular verb.  Eg.: Somebody has left her purse.  Eg.: Everybody has done his or her homework.

8. Rule 1. Agreement for Indefinite pronouns as subjects ➲ Some indefinite pronouns such as all, some, none etc. are singular or plural depending on what they are referring to.  Eg.: All of the students are going to college.  Eg.: Some of the water is gone. ➲ Indefinite pronouns several, few, both and many are always plural and we should use a plural verb with them.  Eg.: Both of you are lazy.

9. Rule 2. Phrase/clause between subject and verb ➲ A phrase or clause between subject and verb does not change the number of the subject.  Eg.: A can of lima beans sits on the shelf.  In the above example, the verb 'sits' agrees with the subject 'can' and not with 'beans'.

10. Rule 3. Compound subject joined with 'and' ➲ Compound subjects joined with 'and' are always plural. So, we have to use plural verb.  Eg.: Pencil and eraser make writing easy.  Since pencil and eraser are joined with 'and', we used plural verb, 'make'.

11. Rule 4. Compound subject joined by or/nor ➲ If compound subjects are joined by or/nor, the verb agrees with subject near to it. Eg.: Neither the director nor the actors are following the lines closely.  In this example, verb agrees with the plural subject 'actors'. Eg.: Neither the actors nor the director is following the lines closely.  In this example, verb agrees with singular subject 'director'.

12. Rule 5. Rule for inverted subjects. ➲ If subject and verb switch their canonical order, then it is said to be inverted subject. ➲ Inverted subject must agree with the verb. Eg.: How are the relatives taking the bad news.  Here, verb 'are' agrees with the inverted subject 'relatives'.

13. Rule 6. Rule for collective noun. ➲ Examples for collective nouns are group, jury, crowd, team etc. ➲ Collective nouns may be singular or plural depending on the meaning. Eg.: The jury has awarded custody to the grandmother  Here, jury is acting as a single body, so singular. Eg.: The jury members have been arguing for five days.  In this example, jury members are pluarl.

14. Rule 7. Rule for single entities. ➲ Single entities are titles of books, organization names, country names etc. ➲ Titles of single entities are always singular. Eg.: The Grapes of Wrath takes a long time to read.  'The Grpaes of Wrath' is a book title, and we use singular verb 'takes' with it.

15. Rule 8. Rule for plural form subjects. ➲ Plural form subjects with singular meaning takes singular verb. Eg.: news, physics etc.  Eg.: Mumps is a contiguous disease. ➲ Plural form subjects with singular or plural meaning take a singular or plural verb, depending on meaning. Eg.: politics, economics etc.  Eg.: Politics is an interesting subject.  Eg.: The politics of the situation were complicated.  In first example, politics is a singular subject. Second one refers to many aspects of the situation; therefore the sentence has a plural verb.

16. Rule 8. Rule for plural form subjects. ➲ Plural subject with plural meaning takes plural verb. Eg.: scissors, trousers etc.  Eg.: The scissors are on the table.  In this example, scissors in plural and hence the verb, 'are'.  Eg.: The pair of scissors is on the table.  'Pair' is a singular subject. So the verb 'is'.

17. Rule 9. Rule with subject and subjective compliment of different number ➲ A subject complement is the adjective, noun, or pronoun that follows a linking verb. ➲ In this case, verb always agrees with the subject. Eg.: My favourate topic is poems by Longfellow.  'Topic' is the subject here. Its singular and so the singular verb 'is'. Poems by Longfellow are my favorite topic.  'Topic' is the subject compliment here. Poems is the topic. Subject is plural and so the plural verb 'are'.

18. Rule 10. Rule for 'one of those' and 'only one of those' ➲ 'One of those' use a plural verb. Eg.: Hannah is one of those people who like read comic books. ➲ 'Only one of those' use a singular verb. Eg.: Hannah is the only one of those people who likes to read comic books.

19. Rule 11. Rule for 'number of' ➲ 'The number of' use a singular verb. Eg.: The number of volunteers grows each other. ➲ 'A number of' use a plural verb. Eg.: A number of people grow tomatoes each summer.

20. Rule 12. Rule for 'every' and 'many a' ➲ 'Every' and 'many a' use a singular verb. Eg.: Every man, woman, and children participates in the lifeboat drill. Eg.: Many a child dreams about becoming famous one day.

21. TAKE A TEST ➲ Let's try out some examples:

22. THANK YOU