Article 9[edit] For collective nouns such as group, jury, family, public, population, the verb may be singular or plural, depending on the intention of the author. Have you ever received a “subject/verb match” as an error on a piece of paper? This document will help you understand this common grammar problem. Basic principle: Singular subjects need singular verbs; Plural subjects need plural verbs. My brother is a nutritionist. My sisters are mathematicians. So far, we have worked with composite subjects whose individual parts are in the singular or plural This document gives you several guidelines to help your subjects and verbs get along. [Note: This is where the prepositional sentence affects the subject. It tells you if you are talking about a part of a thing (singular) or a series of things (plural).] 3. Composite subjects that are related by and are always in the plural. Singular subjects identified by “or”, “again”, “either .. or” or “neither.. nor ” take a singular verb.
Some indefinite pronouns like all, others are singular or plural, depending on what they refer to. (Is the thing referred to countable or not?) Be careful when choosing a verb that accompanies such pronouns. The subject-verb match rules apply to all personal pronouns except I and you, which, although SINGULAR, require plural forms of verbs. Sometimes nouns take strange forms and can make us believe that they are plural if they are really singular and vice versa. For more help, see the section on plural forms of names and the section on collective names. Words such as glasses, pants, pliers, and scissors are considered plural (and require plural verbs) unless they are preceded by the pair of sentences (in which case, the pair of words becomes the subject). When the subject follows the verb (especially in sentences that “there is” or “there is”) with the excerpts, special care is required to determine the subject and ensure that the verb matches it. Remember: here are/there are constructions, look for the subject AFTER the verb and choose a singular verb (is) or plural (are) to match the subject. 2. If two or more singular nouns or pronouns are connected by or or neither, use a singular verb.
10. Collective nouns are words that involve more than one person, but are considered singular and take on a singular verb, such as group, team, committee, class, and family. 10-A With one of these _____ you use a plural verb. In informal spelling, neither sometimes assumes a plural verb if these pronouns are followed by a prepositional sentence that begins with von. This is especially true for questioning constructions: “Has any of you clowns read the order?” “Do any of you take this seriously?” Burchfield calls this “a conflict between a fictitious agreement and an actual agreement.” * So far, we have looked at topics that can cause subject-verb-agreement confusion: composite subjects, group name topics, singular plural form meaning subjects, and indefinite subjects. The word that exists, a contraction from there, leads to bad habits in informal sentences like There are many people here today because it is easier to say “there is” than “there is”. Be careful never to use it with a plural subject. The rest of this lesson deals with some more advanced subject-verb agreement rules, and with the exception of the original subject-verb agreement rule in recent years, the SAT test service has not considered any of them to be strictly singular. According to Merriam-Webster`s Dictionary of English Usage: “Clearly, no one has been and still is both singular and plural since Old English. The idea that it is only singular is a myth of unknown origin that seems to have emerged in the 19th century.
If this sounds singular in context, use a singular verb; If it appears as a plural, use a plural verb. Both are acceptable beyond any serious criticism. If none should clearly mean “not one,” a singular verb follows. A connection verb (“is,” “are,” “was,” “were,” “seem,” and the like) coincides with its subject, not its complement. In the present tense, nouns and verbs form plurals in opposite ways: pronouns are neither singular nor singular and require singular verbs, although in a sense they seem to refer to two things. Example: The list of items is/is on the desktop. If you know that the list is the subject, then choose is for the verb. Anyone who uses a plural verb with a collective noun should be careful to be accurate – and also consistent. We must not be negligent. The following is the kind of erroneous sentence you often see and hear these days: When considered a unit, collective nouns, as well as noun phrases designating together, take singular verbs. 1. If the subject of a sentence consists of two or more nouns or pronouns associated with and around, use a plural verb….
