Faulty Agreement 5.1 Flashcards
Faulty Agreement
When two terms in a sentence are grammatically inconsistent.
Two types of faulty agreement
- Faulty subject-verb agreement
- Faulty noun-pronoun agreement
Subject and verb agreement is…
Requires using singular verbs with singular subjects and plural verbs with plural subjects.
Singular present tense:
Sing, sings, singing, sang or sung
Sings
Present participle
Sing, sings, singing, sang or sung
Singing
Subject-verb agreement
The bird sings.
Singular subject
The bird…
Present Tense Singular Verb
…sings.
Subject-verb agreement
The birds sing.
Plural Subject
The birds…
Present Tense Plural Verb
…sing.
Simple Past Tense…
The most basic form. Used to discuss something that both began and ended in the past.
Usually no difference between singular and plural verbs.
Ex/
The bird sang
The birds sang.
Subject-verb agreement with compound subjects
When Compound subjects are joined with a coordinating conjunction “and” usually always use a plural verb:
Ex/
Bob and Cheryl are going to the game.
When using “either/or” or “neither/nor” whether to use a singular or plural verb depends on the noun nearest to it.
Ex/
Either the girls or the boy is going to the game.
Neither the boy nor the girls are going to the game.
Parenthetical Statement subject-verb agreement…
The verb should always agree with the subject of the main clause.
Ex/
The man, in the company of his dog, goes for a walk.
Spelling of singular and plural verbs
Singular use -s
Ex/ speaks, goes, sings, signs…
Plural do not use -s
Ex/ speak, go, sign, sing
Collective and Mass Noun subject-verb agreement… regionally
In US and AUS collective nouns typically require a singular verb.
UK either plural or singular work.
However, all dialects use a plural verb with a collective noun if the members are acting individually.
Ex/
The team is playing to win!
The team are arguing with each other.
Subject-verb agreement exceptions…
“I” and “you”
Ex/ “I sing.” And. “You sing.”
Subject-verb agreement with Collective Nouns: Regional Differences are…
AUS and US
Stick to singular verbs with collective nouns:
The band is going to the talent contest.
UK
either plural or similar would be accepted:
The band is going to the talent contest.
The band are going to the talent contest.
When adjectives are used as collective nouns…
They should always take a plural verb.
Ex/
The rich are after divorced from the hardships that poorer people encounter.
