#5.SUBJECT – VERB AGREEMENT & VOCABULARY AND READING VOCABULARY

#5.SUBJECT – VERB AGREEMENT & VOCABULARY AND READING VOCABULARY

  Subject - the doer of the action or state of being in a sentence or clause in a sentence.

  Verb - when used with the term subject, verb refers to the predicate in the sentence or clause in a sentence.

  Agreement - a term in grammar which refers to the consistency in gender, number, and person.

  Subject-verb agreement - the consistency in singular or plural (number) between the subject and predicate in a sentence or clause in a sentence: a singular noun must have a singular verb.

  Singular nouns - nouns (person, place, thing, or idea) indicating only one, generally not ending in the letter s: ship (singular); ships (plural - more than one).

  Plural nouns - nouns (person, place, thing, or idea) indicating more than one, generally ending in the letter s: (ship (singular); ships (plural - more than one).  Irregular plural nouns: children, men, women, oxen, syllabi

  Singular verbs - action words or state of being conveying action or state of being of one subject, generally ends in the letter -s in the present tense: She goes, He rides

  Plural verbs - action words or state of being conveying action of state of being of more than one subject, generally not ending in the letter -s in the present tense: They ride, They explore

  Prepositional phrases - a word group beginning with a preposition (a word showing position) and an object: by the sea, in the house, under the tree.  Occasionally, a prepositional phrase is between a subject and verb in a sentence or clause in the sentence.

  Relative pronoun phrase - a word group beginning with a relative pronoun (such as who, whom, which, whichever, whose, that) such as who is in the dining room or that will be taken

  Indefinite pronoun - a pronoun (a word that can take the place of a noun) which does not indicate whether it is singular or plural. 

  Some are always singular such as each, either, neither, and words that end in -body (anybody, somebody).

  Some indefinite pronouns are always plural such as few, many, several, both.

  Either/or; Neither/nor - separately the words either and neither are always singular.  When used with the words or or nor, the verb agrees with the part of the subject which is closest.

  Some indefinite pronouns are based on context: all, any, none, most, some.  The number (singular or plural) depends upon what noun these words are referring to in the sentence.

  Verb tense - variations of verbs to indicate time of action: past, present, future, progressive, and perfect

  Incorrect shifts in tense - where the tense in one part of the sentence does not reflect the literal time of the action in relation to the other part of the sentence

  Correct shifts in tense - where the tense in one part of the sentence reflects the literal time of the action in relation to the other part of the sentence

  Verb form - Verb form refers to the variety of  a verb can be expressed:

  base form of verb – the simplest form of  a verb: see, run, think

  the -s form of the verb – third person present form – She reads

  present participle – the -ing form of a verb

  past form of the verb – the past tense

  the past participle – generally the same as the past tense – the -ed form of the verb