WHAT IS A SENTENCE?

Subject || Verb

Students|| study.

Birds || fly.

CLAUSES AND PHRASES – BUILDING BLOCKS

Clause: a group of related words that contain a subject and a verb Independent Clause: Can stand on its own as a

complete sentence Dependent Clause: Needs an independent clause

to complete its meaning Phrase: a group of related words that does

not contain a subject and a verb (we will get to examples of these later)

SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT

Subject: Doer of an action in a sentence

Use a singular verb with singular subjects. Finer points:

Do not make verbs agree with intervening prepositional phrases.

When subjects are joined by or or nor the verb agrees with the noun closest to it.

INDEFINITE PRONOUNS

Singular Each Either, Neither Another Anyone, Anything, Anybody Someone, Something, Somebody One, No one, Nobody Everyone, Everybody, Everything Nothing

Plural Both Few Many Several

Depend on context None Any All More Most Some

OTHER FINE POINTS

Collective nouns: These may be considered either singular or plural depending on the intended meaning.Examples of collective nouns: group,

committee, crowd, choir, faculty, congress, family, etc

Some nouns look plural but take a singular verb: news, physics, economics, etc.

Title of a single work is singular (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)

EXAMPLES

Five hours is too long to wait. Skip is a boy who practices his drums

every evening.Fifty dollars is a lot of money.Measles is a contagious disease.Everyone in the class is coming to my

house.

SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT, CONT.

Use a plural verb with a plural subject.Compound subjects joined by and are

plural unless they are considered one unit (ex: Ham and eggs is a delicious breakfast.)The scissors cut the cloth easily.Half the pears were eaten before we arrived home.

Physics and chemistry are difficult subjects.

Neither Rod nor his friends wish to attend my party.

SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT, CONT.

In sentences in which one subject is affirmative and the other is negative, the verb agrees with the subject that is used affirmatively. She, not we, is responsible for the

meeting.