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Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Grammar Workshop Series
Unit 5
Subject-Verb Agreement
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Agreement Pre-Test
Choose the best option to complete the sentence.
The best part of being an Art History student _____ the grammar classes.
A) is
B) are
C) were (answer on the next slide)
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Agreement Pre-Test (Answer)
Choose the best option to complete the
sentence.
The best part of being an Art History student
_____ the grammar classes.
A) is
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Agreement Pre-Test Choose the best option to complete the
sentence.
On the television screen ________ an
image of the most famous Renaissance
painters.
A) appear
B) appears (answer on the next slide)
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Agreement Pre-Test (Answer)
Choose the best option to complete the
sentence.
On the television screen ________ an
image of the most famous Renaissance
painters.
B) appears
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Subject-Verb Agreement
One Rule! Subjects and verbs must agree in number and person.
• A singular subject requires singular verb
• A plural subject requires a plural verb
Example: Leonardo da Vinci is the archetype of the
“Renaissance man.”
Example: Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli are famous
Renaissance artists.
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Showing Agreement
• S-V agreement is shown with the letter “s”
or the letters “es”
• Verbs in present tense:
– For singular verbs, add “s” or “es”
• The student agrees.
• The students agree.
• The student works.
• The students work.
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Ignoring Words between the
Subject and Verb • Ignore all words between subject and verb
– Error: Paintings such as da Vinci’s Mona Lisa
draws thousands of tourists to the Louvre in
Paris every year.
– Correct: Paintings such as da Vinci’s Mona
Lisa draw thousands of tourists to the Louvre
in Paris every year
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Ignoring Words between the
Subject & Verb • YES: The student in my college class
works long hours.
• YES: The student in my college classes works long hours.
• YES: The students in my college class work long hours.
• YES: The students in my college classes work long hours.
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Subject-Verb Agreement:
Common Errors 1) Two subjects joined by "and" create a
compound subject that calls for a plural verb.
Error: The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper is two of the most famous paintings in the western world.
Correct: The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper are two of the most famous paintings in the western world.
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Subject-Verb Agreement:
Common Errors But watch out! Some constructions only look like compound
subjects.
• Phrases such as “together with”, “as well as”, and “along with” are not the same as “and”.
• The phrase introduced by “as well as” or similar words will modify the earlier word (mayor in this case), but it does not compound the subjects (as the word “and” would do).
Correct: The mayor and his brothers are going to jail.
Correct: The mayor, as well as his brothers, is going to jail.
Incorrect. The mayor, as well as his brothers, are going to jail.
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Subject-Verb Agreement:
Common Errors
2) When each or every precedes two
subjects joined by and, then use
singular verb.
Error: Almost every art historian and critic
admire Leonardo da Vinci’s work.
Correct: Almost every art historian and critic
admires Leonardo da Vinci’s work.
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Subject-Verb Agreement:
Common Errors
3) When using either/or and neither/nor,
make verb agree with closest subject.
Correct: Neither Leonardo da Vinci nor his
assistants are famous for being wealthy.
Correct: Neither his assistants nor Leonardo
da Vinci is famous for being wealthy.
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Subject-Verb Agreement:
Common Errors
4) Indefinite Pronouns (everybody,
anyone, nobody, nothing) are usually
singular, but get their meaning from
context
Error: Everybody recognize the Mona Lisa.
Correct: Everybody recognizes the Mona
Lisa.
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Subject-Verb Agreement:
Common Errors
4) Indefinite Pronouns Continued
• Some indefinite pronouns (i.e., as all or some)
are singular or plural depending on what
they're referring to.
• Ask whether the thing referred to is countable or
not.
Correct: Some of the beads are missing.
Correct: Some of the water is gone.
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Subject-Verb Agreement:
Common Errors
5) Collective nouns (team, group, class)
are usually singular.
Error: The Leonardo da Vinci fan club have
a Facebook site
Correct: The Leonardo da Vinci fan club has
a Facebook site.
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Subject-Verb Agreement:
Common Errors
6) When using “who/which/that”, make the verb
agree with the antecedent.
Correct: The professor who teaches Leonardo da
Vinci is renowned for his good lectures.
Correct: The professors who teach Leonardo da
Vinci are renowned for their good lectures.
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Subject-Verb Agreement:
Common Errors
7) Sometimes our sentences have inverted word order, meaning the subject isn’t at the start of the sentence. In these cases, search for the subject FIRST then determine whether the verb agrees.
Error: On the television screens appear an image of Leonardo da Vinci’s many paintings.
Correct: On the television screen appears an image of Leonardo da Vinci’s many paintings.
(image = singular subject; appears = singular verb)
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Subject-Verb Agreement:
Common Errors 7) Inverted Word Order Continued
• “There” and “here” are never the subjects of sentences; “it” can be a subject.
• YES: There are nine planets in our solar system. (planets = subject; are = verb)
• YES: There is no life on eight of the planets. (life = subject; is = verb)
• YES: It is the life forms on the ninth planet that have been making trouble lately. (It = subject; is = verb)
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Subject-Verb Agreement:
Common Errors 8) Linking verbs
• Linking verbs agree with the subject, not the
subject complement (see the first workshop for
the definition of subject complement).
Error: The worst part of Leonardo da Vinci’s
career are the years of poverty he suffered.
Correct: The worst part of Leonardo da Vinci’s
career is the years of poverty he suffered.
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Miscellaneous (Common)
Problems with Agreement
The Following Examples Are Correct:
• Some of the voters are still angry.
• A large percentage of the older population is voting against her.
• Two-fifths of the troops were lost in the battle.
• Two-fifths of the vineyard was destroyed by fire.
• Forty percent of the students are in favor of changing the policy.
• Forty percent of the student body is in favor of changing the policy.
• Two and two is four.
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Miscellaneous (Common)
Problems with Agreement The Following Examples Are Correct:
• My glasses were on the bed.
• My assets were wiped out in the depression.
• Our thanks go to the workers who supported the union.
• The news from the front is bad.
• Measles is a dangerous disease for pregnant women.
• The department members but not the chair have decided not to teach on Valentine's Day.
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Choose the Best Option
• Either his sketches of inventions or his
painting, the Mona Lisa, ____ going to sell
for millions of dollars at the auction.
A) is
B) are
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Choose the Best Option
• Some of the votes __________ to have
been miscounted.
A) seem
B) seems
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Choose the Best Option
• Every one of Leonardo da Vinci’s paintings
in the French government’s collection
______ an acknowledged masterpiece.
A) is
B) are
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Choose the Best Option
Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, along with his
inventions, _____ him unique among his
peers.
A) make
B) makes
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Choose the Best Option
At least three-quarters of his paintings
__________ destroyed.
A) were
B) was
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Choose the Best Option
• Some of the Guild members _____
charged with sodomy and then acquitted
in 1476.
A) is
B) are
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Choose the Best Option
• The band ______ ready to go on tour.
A) is
B) are
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Choose the Best Option
• The band members ______ ready to go on
tour.
A) is
B) are
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Choose the Best Option
• 90% of da Vinci’s 13,000 pages of journal
entries _________ in mirror-image cursive
from right to left.
A) is written
B) are written
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Choose the Best Option
• There ____ approximately 15 of da Vinci’s
original paintings remaining in the world.
A) is
B) are
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Choose the Best Option
• Almost every one of our students ______
on to have a successful career as an
artist.
A) goes
B) go
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Choose the Best Option
• The field of anatomy, together with civil
engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics,
______ greatly advanced by Leonardo da
Vinci.
A) was
B) were
Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
Answers
A, A, B, B, A, B, A, B, B, B, A, A.