Page 54 - (DK) Help Your Kids with Language Arts

52 GRAMMAR

Verb agreement SEE ALSO

22–23 Nouns
THE NUMBER OF THE SUBJECT DICTATES THE NUMBER OF THE VERB.   24–25 Plurals
34–35 Pronouns
Like nouns and pronouns, a verb can be singular or plural in number,   36–37 Number and gender
38–39 Verbs
but it must match the subject to which it relates. Sometimes it’s  42–43 Simple tenses
hard to know whether a noun is singular or plural, leading to errors Prepositions 60–61 
in verb agreement.

The subject is
Singular or plural? subject plural so the verb
must be plural.
The key to correct verb • Some nouns sound plural but
agreement is to follow this are actually treated as singular.
simple rule: If the subject is These include mathematics and
singular, the verb must be politics, as well as proper nouns
singular; if the subject is plural, such as United States or
the verb must also be plural. Philippines.
subject The subject is singular so
the verb must be singular.

Collective nouns
Identifying the subject Most collective nouns (for example, class or crowd) are
singular words, because they can be made plural (classes,
One problem occurs when the wrong word is
identified as the subject. This often happens crowds). However, some collective nouns, including team,
when the subject and verb are separated by a staff, and couple, can be singular or plural. A good general
prepositional phrase. When the prepositional rule to follow is to consider whether the noun is acting
phrase is removed from the sentence, it becomes as a unit or whether the noun is made up of individuals
clear which noun or pronoun is the true subject. acting in different ways.

Here, the team
This is a prepositional phrase, made represents a unit,
up of the preposition of, the adjective so the singular
extra, and the noun weights. form of the verb
is used.

The prepositional phrase has been
removed from the sentence, so it is now
clear that the subject (box) is singular.

The subject is singular, so the
singular verb form is is used.
Here, the individual
members of the team
are acting in different
ways, so the plural
form of the verb
The prepositional phrase has been is used.
put back into the sentence, and the
verb now agrees with the subject.