Steem Skillshare English Class | Season 1 | Week 1 | Subject-Verb Agreement

Greetings to everyone, I welcomed you all to the first lesson of the English Language Session. I am @abu78 and today I will take you through the topic Subject-Verb Agreement or Concord. I hope to give my best to the understanding of all. Without much ado, let's go straight to business.

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Subject-Verb Agreement / Concord

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Subject-Verb Agreement / Concord simply means subjects agreeing with the verbs in number. This shows how a verb changes in to indicate how many subjects are present in a sentence. For example; let's see the verb eat as used in the following sentences.

1. She eats
2. They eat

We can clearly see from the above examples that when the singular subject was used we added "s" to the verb eat whilst we maintain the verb eat for the plural subject.

Subject-Verb Agreement errors are very serious and must be vigilant about them. When a writer or an author is seen to continuously be committing errors in his/her subject-verb agreement, then we can conclude that such writer has a poor mastery over his/her English Language. This is why it's very significant for everyone to master the thirteen rules or conditions in which subject-verb agreement errors can be caused.
Now let's look at what these rules are with examples each, we would first of all look at the first 7 rules in this lesson.

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The thirteen Rules of SUbject-Verb Agreement

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Rule No 1

When two or more subjects are joined by "and", we consider them as plural and the required verb must also be in the plural form without adding the "s". For example;

a. Mary, Jessica, and Kelvin walk to the library.
b. Elizabeth and her sisters eat together.

Rule No 2

When any subject is being modified by the words "each" or "every" then the subject is considered as singular and so the verb must also be in the singular form, i.e. we add "s" to the verb. For example;

a. Each boy eats in the morning

Rule No 3

When plural subjects are joined by "or", "nor", or "but", then the verb agrees with the subject that is closest to it. For example;

a. Either Jessica or her sister *drives to the school.
b. Neither Jessica nor her sisters *drive to the school.
c. Not Jessica but her sister drives to the school.
d. Not Jessica but her sisters drive to the school.

Rule No 4

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When indefinite pronouns are used, then it is considered as a singular subject and must take a singular verb that is, add "s" to the end of the verb. For example;

a. Everything comes
b. Everyone eats
c. Everyone walks

Rule No 5

In identifying the subject of a verb, always isolate the prepositional or verbal phrase from the sentence and then find the proper subject. For example;

a. The mother duck (including all her ducklings) swims in the water. Over her "duck" is the main subject and the sentence in the bracket is the prepositional phrase.

Rule No 6

Some of the indefinite pronouns and nouns are considered to be singular o plural depending on the object of the prepositional phrase in the sentence. Examples of these words include; half, most, none, part, some, all, etc. For example;

a. Some (of the food) is gone. In this example, (of the food) is the prepositional object and is singular and so it takes a singular verb as well.
b. The mother duck and all( of her ducklings) swim in the water.
c. Some (of the teachers) are gone.

Rule No 7

When collective nouns are used as the subject then the verb would be in the singular form. These collective nouns include; family, committee, class, group, etc. For example;

a. Jessica's family with all her cousins drives to school.
b. The Group is having a discussion.

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I would like to end the first class here so that we can continue with the rules in our next class.

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Homework Task

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1. Explain the Subject-Verb agreement in your words.
2. Search and Explore the 7 rules you have learned and explain in your own words how you understand them.
3. Provide 5 examples with each of the 7 rules you have learned. Note, the examples I used are excluded.

Class rules:

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There are some rules for enrolling in the course that the students have to follow all the time.

• Students must write at least 250 words.
• Students must be serious and must always stick to the course.
• Students must attend classes on a regular basis and complete the homework that teachers will give them in class.
• Students must submit assignments before the deadline.
• No plagiarism is allowed.
• Students who will miss three assignments they will be taken out of the class.
• Learners have to be respectful to each other.
• Being abusive toward anyone either teacher or fellow students will result in being permanently banned from the community and discord.
• Homework Task runs until 26th October 2021, Time- 11:59 PM UTC.

Add tag #abu78-s1week1 #englishclass in your post and should be among the first five tags. You can also use other relevant tags like #subject-verb #concord. Always post in the Steem Skillshare Community
Your homework title should be Steem Skillshare |S1W1| Subject-Verb Agreement | Homework Post for @abu78
Feel free to ask me any question in the comment section if you have any doubt on Homework-Task

Thank You all for your time and attention.