Subject- Verb Agreement
PART TWO
Collective Nouns
Occasionally,
a noun ending in -s is singular. This is especially true of collective nouns
and noun phrases that are considered indivisible units.
The United States is an important country.
The news is televised.
The Maldives consists of 26 atolls.
The United Nations has five principal administrative
bodies.
Macy’s is a department store.
Physics is a science.
Note that
if such a noun is changed to a pronoun, the singular pronoun it is used. This
is because the noun is considered singular: The United Nations is one unit and
is therefore replaced by it and not by they or them. This same concept can be
applied to expressions of time, distance, and money.
Ten hours of flying is too long.
Thirty miles is the exact distance from here to there.
Fifty dollars is too expensive.
Note,
however, that the nouns people and police are plural and take plural verb forms.
All those people are trapped inside their homes.
The police have intervened swiftly.
Finally,
there are several adjectives preceded by the that are used as plural nouns.
The old are not well taken care of in this country.
The rich keep getting richer.
The wrongly accused deserve justice.
The injured and wounded lie about the battlefield.
Following
is a list of other adjectives that are used as plural nouns.
the blind
the dead
the deaf
the handicapped
the living
the young
Auxiliary Verbs
If a verb
phrase contains an auxiliary verb, it is the auxiliary verb, and no other verbal
element, that must agree with the subject of the sentence. Examples with the
auxiliary be follow.
He is singing (singular) they are singing (plural)
He is punished (singular) they are punished (plural)
He was speaking (singular) they were speaking (plural)
Examples with the auxiliary have
follow.
He has
learned. (singular) they have learned. (plural)
He had
been hurrying (singular) they had been learning. (plural)
Examples with the auxiliary do
follow.
Does
he understand? (singular) Do the understand? (plural)
He didn’t
care. (singular) They didn’t care. (plural)
No matter
how complicated the verb phrase is, only the auxiliary verb form agrees with
the subject of the sentence. The other elements of the phrase remain the same.
Complex Sentences
A
dependent clause is called a relative clause when it begins with who, which, or
that. When one of these words is immediately followed by a verb phrase, the relative
pronoun (who, which, that) becomes the subject
of the clause.
Consider the following examples.
The man, who was walking down the street, was poor.
Peter usually eats macaroni and cheese, which is his
favorite dish.
Do you see the plane that is flying away?
If who,
which, or that is the subject of the relative clause, the verb must reflect the
number of that subject: singular or plural. If the antecedent of who, which, or
that is singular, the relative pronoun is singular. If the antecedent is
plural, the relative pronoun is plural. And in both instances, the verb will
agree with the number of the antecedent and relative pronoun.
Singular Antecedent
The boy,
who is throwing stones, is going to break a window.
The car,
which is being built in Detroit, has GPS as a standard feature.
John
found a pen that is made of silver.
Plural Antecedent
The boys,
who are throwing stones, are going to break a window.
The cars,
which are being built in Detroit, have GPS as a standard feature.
Mary
found two pens that are made of silver.
While who,
which, or that can be the subject of the relative clause, whose cannot be a
subject. In this case, the subject of the clause is the noun that immediately
follows whose.
He is the architect whose mother comes from a poor
country.
In this
sentence, the subject of the relative clause is ‘mother’ and the verb is ‘comes’,
the third person singular form that agrees with the singular noun ‘mother’. It
is possible for whose to be used with a plural subject.
He is the architect whose parents come from a poor
country.
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