5.1.1 Subject-verb agreement

This is a continuation article on learning about nouns as a very important part of speech. For revision, in the previous post 5.1 Count noun and Non-count nouns we mentioned the importance of Subject-verb agreement and understand nouns. Following this, in this write-up, we will get across the principles of subject-verb agreement.

Subject-Verb Agreement

Why you should learn this topic?

It is significant that when you use any noun in your speaking or writing communication. First, you would check the noun is countable or uncountable according to that you should adopt the right form of a verb. That’s called subject-verb agreement. 

In order to understand Subject-verb agreement, we have taken a story from the website eslyes.com. It has hundreds of stories in the audio format. In particular, we have a story in that we have a conversation between Mike and Customer care person. Before we go into the story let us take attention on Subject-verb agreement.

Grammar point: 5.1.1) Subject-verb agreement:

A subject-verb agreement is important that the subject must agree with the verb and used according to the subject. It’s especially critical when we using with count and non-count nouns. Count nouns are used ‘s/es’ for its plural form and plural form of ‘be verb’ too. However, with non-count nouns, we always use the singular form of  'be' verb.

Rules:

-Singular subject + Singular verb

-Plural subject + Plural verb

We have reviewed counts and non-count nouns (5.1) in the previous blog where we have shown plural forms of the verb. Here we learn singular and plural forms of  'to be' verb.

Forms of ‘To be’

Tenses:	person	Singular (to be form)	Singular (verb)	Plural (to be form)	Plural (verb)
1) Present tense	1st person 2nd person 3rd person	I You He She It	am are    is is is	We You They	are are are
2) Past tense	1st person 2nd person 3rd person	I You He She It	was were    was was was	We You They	were were were

(Audio Source: https://eslyes.com )

Kindly listen to the story

In the story,

I)  “There was a U with a circle around it after the word Powder.”

II) “Under that word was a drawing of a garlic bulb”

III) “She said if there is only one ingredient, there is no ingredients label.”

IV)  “Kosher food is food that is prepared according to Jewish law.”

Here, ‘There’ ‘Kosher food’ and ‘that word’ are singular forms of a subject so ‘was’ is used.

V)  “Powder is powder, but Seasoning could mean salt.”

VI)  “Under the word Powder was another word, Seasoning”

Continued in the story, non-count noun “Powder” is used as a subject, therefore, the singular form of the verb is used.

   VII) She said that sometimes they get the garlic from China, sometimes they get it from the U.S.

At an end of the conversation, ‘they’ is a plural pronoun so the verb ‘get’ does not require ‘s/es’ endings in the present tense.

More examples:

   1)  She is a teacher in school.

   2)  The information was printed in news yesterday.

   3)  We are going to the mall.

Thank you for learning grammar points and review our blog site 'The ultimate guide to learn: intermediate grammar for the real world. If you have any question or suggestion then let me know in the comment section, I’ll be happy to answer them.

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