{"id":65,"date":"2017-07-20T16:28:14","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T16:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/chapter\/subject-verb-agreement\/"},"modified":"2017-07-20T16:28:14","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T16:28:14","slug":"subject-verb-agreement","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/chapter\/subject-verb-agreement\/","title":{"raw":"Subject &amp; Verb Agreement","rendered":"Subject &amp; Verb Agreement"},"content":{"raw":"<img class=\"alignright wp-image-2336\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2232\/2017\/07\/20162813\/Screen-Shot-2016-06-21-at-2.39.54-PM-300x246.png\" alt=\"Icon of two speech bubbles; one has a thumbs-up sign in it\" width=\"183\" height=\"150\"\/>The basic idea behind sentence agreement is pretty simple: all the parts of your sentence should match (or <strong>agree<\/strong>).\u00a0Verbs need to agree with their subjects in <strong>number<\/strong> (singular or plural) and in <strong>person<\/strong> (first, second, or third). In order to check agreement, you simply\u00a0need to find the verb and ask who or what is doing the action of that verb.\n<h2>Person<\/h2>\nAgreement based on grammatical person (first, second, or third person) is found mostly between verb and subject.\u00a0For example, you can\u00a0say \"I am\" or \"he is,\" but not \"I is\" or \"he am.\" This is because the grammar of the language requires that the verb and its subject agree in person. The pronouns <em>I<\/em> and <em>he<\/em> are first and third person respectively, as are the verb forms <em>am<\/em> and <em>is<\/em>. The verb form must be selected so that it has the same person as the subject.\n<h2>Number<\/h2>\nAgreement based on grammatical number can occur between verb and subject, as in the case of grammatical person discussed above. In fact the two categories are often conflated within verb conjugation patterns: there are specific verb forms for first person singular, second person plural and so on. Some examples:\n<ul><li><strong>I<\/strong> really <strong>am<\/strong> (1st pers. singular) vs. <strong>We<\/strong> really <strong>are<\/strong> (1st pers. plural)<\/li>\n \t<li>The <strong>boy sings<\/strong> (3rd pers. singular) vs. The <strong>boys sing<\/strong> (3rd pers. plural)<\/li>\n<\/ul><h3>More\u00a0Examples<\/h3>\nCompound subjects are plural, and their verbs should agree. Look at the following sentence for an example:\n<ul><li>A pencil, a backpack, and a notebook <b>were<\/b> issued to each student.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nVerbs will never agree with nouns that are in prepositional phrases. To make verbs agree with their subjects, follow this example:\n<ul><li>The direction of the three plays <b>is<\/b> the topic of my talk.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThe subject of \"my talk\" is <i>direction,<\/i> not <i>plays<\/i>, so the verb should be singular.\n\nIn the English language, verbs usually follow subjects. But when this order is reversed, the writer must make the verb agree with the subject, not with a noun that happens to precede it. For example:\n<ul><li>Beside the house <b>stand<\/b> sheds filled with tools.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThe subject is <i>sheds<\/i>; it is plural, so the verb must be <i>stand<\/i>.\n<h2>Agreement<\/h2>\nAll regular verbs (and nearly all irregular ones) in English agree in the third-person singular of the present indicative by adding a suffix of either <i>-s<\/i> or <i>-es<\/i>.\n\nLook at the present tense of <i>to love, <\/i>for example:\n<table class=\"wikitable\"><tbody><tr><th rowspan=\"2\">Person<\/th>\n<th colspan=\"2\">Number<\/th>\n<\/tr><tr><th>Singular<\/th>\n<th>Plural<\/th>\n<\/tr><tr><th>First<\/th>\n<td><i>I love<\/i><\/td>\n<td><i>we love<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr><tr><th>Second<\/th>\n<td><i>you love<\/i><\/td>\n<td><i>you love<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr><tr><th>Third<\/th>\n<td><i>he\/she\/it love<b>s<\/b><\/i><\/td>\n<td><i>they love<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\nThe highly irregular verb <i>to be<\/i> is the only verb with more agreement than this in the present tense:\n<table class=\"wikitable\"><tbody><tr><th rowspan=\"2\">Person<\/th>\n<th colspan=\"2\">Number<\/th>\n<\/tr><tr><th>Singular<\/th>\n<th>Plural<\/th>\n<\/tr><tr><th>First<\/th>\n<td><i>I am<\/i><\/td>\n<td><i>we are<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr><tr><th>Second<\/th>\n<td><i>you are<\/i><\/td>\n<td><i>you are<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr><tr><th>Third<\/th>\n<td><i>he\/she\/it is<\/i><\/td>\n<td><i>they are<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\n<h3>Practice<\/h3>\nChoose the correct verb to make the sentences agree:\n<ol><li>Ann (walk \/ walks) really slowly.<\/li>\n \t<li>You (is \/ am \/ are) dating Tom?<\/li>\n \t<li>Donna and April (get \/ gets) along well.<\/li>\n \t<li>Chris and Ben (is \/ am \/ are) the best duo\u00a0this company has ever seen.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n[reveal-answer q=\"813087\"]Show Answer[\/reveal-answer]\n[hidden-answer a=\"813087\"]\n<ol><li>Ann <strong>walks<\/strong>\u00a0really slowly.\n<ul><li><em>Ann<\/em> is a singular, third-person\u00a0subject.<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/li>\n \t<li>You <strong>are<\/strong>\u00a0dating Tom?\n<ul><li><em>You<\/em> is a singular,\u00a0second-person\u00a0subject.<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/li>\n \t<li>Donna and April <strong>get<\/strong> along well.\n<ul><li><em>Donna and April<\/em> is a plural, third-person subject.<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/li>\n \t<li>Chris and Ben <strong>are<\/strong>\u00a0the best duo\u00a0this company has ever seen.\n<ul><li><em>Chris and Ben<\/em> is a plural, third-person subject.<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n[\/hidden-answer]\n\n<\/div>","rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-2336\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2232\/2017\/07\/20162813\/Screen-Shot-2016-06-21-at-2.39.54-PM-300x246.png\" alt=\"Icon of two speech bubbles; one has a thumbs-up sign in it\" width=\"183\" height=\"150\" \/>The basic idea behind sentence agreement is pretty simple: all the parts of your sentence should match (or <strong>agree<\/strong>).\u00a0Verbs need to agree with their subjects in <strong>number<\/strong> (singular or plural) and in <strong>person<\/strong> (first, second, or third). In order to check agreement, you simply\u00a0need to find the verb and ask who or what is doing the action of that verb.<\/p>\n<h2>Person<\/h2>\n<p>Agreement based on grammatical person (first, second, or third person) is found mostly between verb and subject.\u00a0For example, you can\u00a0say &#8220;I am&#8221; or &#8220;he is,&#8221; but not &#8220;I is&#8221; or &#8220;he am.&#8221; This is because the grammar of the language requires that the verb and its subject agree in person. The pronouns <em>I<\/em> and <em>he<\/em> are first and third person respectively, as are the verb forms <em>am<\/em> and <em>is<\/em>. The verb form must be selected so that it has the same person as the subject.<\/p>\n<h2>Number<\/h2>\n<p>Agreement based on grammatical number can occur between verb and subject, as in the case of grammatical person discussed above. In fact the two categories are often conflated within verb conjugation patterns: there are specific verb forms for first person singular, second person plural and so on. Some examples:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>I<\/strong> really <strong>am<\/strong> (1st pers. singular) vs. <strong>We<\/strong> really <strong>are<\/strong> (1st pers. plural)<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>boy sings<\/strong> (3rd pers. singular) vs. The <strong>boys sing<\/strong> (3rd pers. plural)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>More\u00a0Examples<\/h3>\n<p>Compound subjects are plural, and their verbs should agree. Look at the following sentence for an example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A pencil, a backpack, and a notebook <b>were<\/b> issued to each student.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Verbs will never agree with nouns that are in prepositional phrases. To make verbs agree with their subjects, follow this example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The direction of the three plays <b>is<\/b> the topic of my talk.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The subject of &#8220;my talk&#8221; is <i>direction,<\/i> not <i>plays<\/i>, so the verb should be singular.<\/p>\n<p>In the English language, verbs usually follow subjects. But when this order is reversed, the writer must make the verb agree with the subject, not with a noun that happens to precede it. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Beside the house <b>stand<\/b> sheds filled with tools.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The subject is <i>sheds<\/i>; it is plural, so the verb must be <i>stand<\/i>.<\/p>\n<h2>Agreement<\/h2>\n<p>All regular verbs (and nearly all irregular ones) in English agree in the third-person singular of the present indicative by adding a suffix of either <i>-s<\/i> or <i>-es<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>Look at the present tense of <i>to love, <\/i>for example:<\/p>\n<table class=\"wikitable\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<th rowspan=\"2\">Person<\/th>\n<th colspan=\"2\">Number<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Singular<\/th>\n<th>Plural<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>First<\/th>\n<td><i>I love<\/i><\/td>\n<td><i>we love<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Second<\/th>\n<td><i>you love<\/i><\/td>\n<td><i>you love<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Third<\/th>\n<td><i>he\/she\/it love<b>s<\/b><\/i><\/td>\n<td><i>they love<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>The highly irregular verb <i>to be<\/i> is the only verb with more agreement than this in the present tense:<\/p>\n<table class=\"wikitable\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<th rowspan=\"2\">Person<\/th>\n<th colspan=\"2\">Number<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Singular<\/th>\n<th>Plural<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>First<\/th>\n<td><i>I am<\/i><\/td>\n<td><i>we are<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Second<\/th>\n<td><i>you are<\/i><\/td>\n<td><i>you are<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Third<\/th>\n<td><i>he\/she\/it is<\/i><\/td>\n<td><i>they are<\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\n<h3>Practice<\/h3>\n<p>Choose the correct verb to make the sentences agree:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Ann (walk \/ walks) really slowly.<\/li>\n<li>You (is \/ am \/ are) dating Tom?<\/li>\n<li>Donna and April (get \/ gets) along well.<\/li>\n<li>Chris and Ben (is \/ am \/ are) the best duo\u00a0this company has ever seen.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div class=\"qa-wrapper\" style=\"display: block\"><span class=\"show-answer collapsed\" style=\"cursor: pointer\" data-target=\"q813087\">Show Answer<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"q813087\" class=\"hidden-answer\" style=\"display: none\">\n<ol>\n<li>Ann <strong>walks<\/strong>\u00a0really slowly.\n<ul>\n<li><em>Ann<\/em> is a singular, third-person\u00a0subject.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>You <strong>are<\/strong>\u00a0dating Tom?\n<ul>\n<li><em>You<\/em> is a singular,\u00a0second-person\u00a0subject.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Donna and April <strong>get<\/strong> along well.\n<ul>\n<li><em>Donna and April<\/em> is a plural, third-person subject.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Chris and Ben <strong>are<\/strong>\u00a0the best duo\u00a0this company has ever seen.\n<ul>\n<li><em>Chris and Ben<\/em> is a plural, third-person subject.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-65\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Revision and Adaptation. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Rhetoric and Composition\/Parts of Speech. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Wikibooks. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikibooks.org\/wiki\/Rhetoric_and_Composition\/Parts_of_Speech#Verbs\">https:\/\/en.wikibooks.org\/wiki\/Rhetoric_and_Composition\/Parts_of_Speech#Verbs<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Agreement (linguistics). <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Wikipedia. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Agreement_(linguistics)\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Agreement_(linguistics)<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Image of speech bubbles. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Gregor Cresnar. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: The Noun Project. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/thenounproject.com\/search\/?q=agreed&#038;i=441045\">https:\/\/thenounproject.com\/search\/?q=agreed&#038;i=441045<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":19,"menu_order":22,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Revision and Adaptation\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Rhetoric and Composition\/Parts of Speech\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Wikibooks\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/en.wikibooks.org\/wiki\/Rhetoric_and_Composition\/Parts_of_Speech#Verbs\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Agreement (linguistics)\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Wikipedia\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Agreement_(linguistics)\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Image of speech bubbles\",\"author\":\"Gregor Cresnar\",\"organization\":\"The Noun Project\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thenounproject.com\/search\/?q=agreed&i=441045\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-65","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":22,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/65","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/65\/revisions"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/22"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/65\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}