English is the widely used language on Earth. It is one of the communication links between people. It would an added advantage to be literate in English. However, to master the language well is not easy because in English, you need focus on the use of nouns, verbs, tenses and many other more. One of my common grammar mistakes I often make is the Subject Verb Agreement.
In a sentence, I often fail to identify the correct subject. In Subject Verb Agreement, the basic rule states that a singular subject takes a singular verb, while a plural subject takes a plural verb1. It is so important to identify the subject because it will determine the verb to be use. If the wrong subject is identified, it would lead to the wrong use of verb. It would lead to a wrong sentence of singular subject with the use of plural verb or vice versa.
For an example, “Other important reasons for the spread of English language are economic.” The subject of the sentence is “reasons”, since “reasons” is plural, so the verb used has to be plural too. Thus, “are” is the verb used in the sentence.
All in all, Subject Verb Agreement is an important part of a sentence structure. By using the correct verb with the corresponding subject will bring out the correct meaning of the sentence. Although Subject Verb Agreement is important, there are also many other grammar usage we need to consider too. Therefore, to form a sentence that make sense and bring meaning to reader required much effort too.
1http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/subjectVerbAgree.asp
A Practice Exercise of Subject Verb Agreement
Why English?
The English language is used by more people in the world than any other living language today. This may seem surprising at first. After all, the population of the United Kingdom (1)____ (be) one of the smallest in the world. But of course the UK is not the only country whose native language (2)_______(be) English; the majority of people in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (3)________(be) also native English-speakers. However, even if you add up the populations of these countries the total only (4)________(come) to about 400 million, which (5)________(be) less than one-tenth of the population of the world.
Who else (6)_________(speak) English? Well, if we count all the English-speakers in India, Singapore and Hong Kong, that (7)_________(add) another 700 million to the total. Add all the people speaking English elsewhere and the total English-speaking population of the world (8)________(come) to an impressive one and a half billion!
This figure shows that there (9)______(be) more non-native speakers of English than there are native speakers. Why is this? There is one important historical reason: the influence of the British Empire -- the Empire that stretched across the globe. Although the Empire no longer (10)_____(exist), the English language is firmly rooted in its former colonies -- in Africa, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Far East, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean and North America.
Other important reasons for the spread of English language (11)______(be) economic. English is the language of international business and commerce. It is also the native language of the United States. So, any country wanting, for example, to trade with the United States, or to take advantage of its technology, (12)______(need) to operate in English. Also, most scientific and technological developments have been made by English-speaking societies. To keep up with such developments, to talk about them in international conferences, or write and read about them in scientific journals and books, scientists, scholars and students must be able to understand English.
These are obvious reasons for the spread and interest in the English language. But there is a rather less obvious reason. English is also the language of a popular culture. All over the globe millions of young people listen to pop music and watch pop videos. The stars who perform in English (13)________(be) by far the most famous. The songs of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Police, Sting, Michael Jackson, and hundreds of other American and British singers (14)_______(be) heard all over the world. English has become an international language.
English is well suited to this role. Unlike many other languages, it has a built-in flexibility that (15)________(allow) constant adaptation and assimilation. In English, vocabulary from other languages (16)_________(be) often used, new words and combinations of words can be coined easily, nouns can be turned into verbs and vice versa.
Furthermore English does not suffer from having an academy (as (17)_____(do) France) which monitors the language and sets the standards of 'correctness'. What is correct in English (18)_______(be) often, simply, what (19)______(be) accepted as appropriate and understandable by those who (20)______(speak) it, whether they are native or non-native speakers.
This flexibility helps to explain why English has survived so well, why it can vary so much from speaker to speaker and why it has become a world language.
Passage taken from: GUO Jieke, YANG ying, JIN yan. 2002. College English Fast Reading (Book 2). Shanghai Foreign Languages Education Press.
Answer for Passage:
Why English?
(1) is
Explanation: “population” (uncountable noun takes a singular verb)
(2) is
Explanation: “native language” as subject (singular)
(3) are
Explanation: “majority” as the subject here, verb can be singular or plural depending on whether the nouns after “of “ are singular or plural.
(4)comes
Explanation: “the total” as the subject (singular)
(5) is
Explanation: verb agrees with a sum number ( singular)
(6)speaks
Explanation: Who (interrogative pronoun as subject, takes a singular verb)
(7) adds
Explanation: pronoun “that” as the subject here (singular)
(8) comes
Explanation: same as (1)
(9) are
Explanation: in “there be” structure, whether to use “is” or “are” is determined by the noun used after “there be”.
(10) exists
Explanation: “empire” as subject (singular)
(11)are
Explanation: reasons (plural) as subject of the verb “be”
(12) needs
Explanation: “any country” used as subject (singular)
(13) are
Explanation: the subject here is “the stars (plural)
(14) are
Explanation: the subject here is “the songs” (plural)
(15) allows
Explanation: flexibility (uncountable noun) takes a singular verb
(16) is
Explanation: vocabulary (uncountable noun here) takes a singular verb
(17) does
Explanation: France is the subject here (subject)
(18) is
Explanation: The noun clause “What is correct” serves as the subject here and takes a
singular verb.
(19) is
Explanation: similar to 6
(20) speak
Explanation: those + verb in the plural form
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4 comments:
I wish you well with English, but would like to remind you about Esperanto. It is a planned language which belongs to no one country or group of states.
Take a look at www.esperanto.net
Esperanto works! I've used it in speech and writing in a dozen countries over recent years.
Indeed, the language has some remarkable practical benefits. Personally, I've made friends around the world through Esperanto that I would never have been able to communicate with otherwise. And then there's the Pasporta Servo, which provides free lodging and local information to Esperanto-speaking travellers in over 90 countries.
Bill Chapman does well to suggest a serious discussion about the need for a new global language and, as a native English speaker, I agree that the international use of English is unethical.
I see that Barack Obama wants everyone to learn a foreign language, but which one should it be?
The British learn French, the Australians study Japanese, and the Americans prefer Spanish.
Yet this leaves Mandarin Chinese out of the equation.
Interestingly nine British MP's have nominated Esperanto for the Nobel Peace Prize 2008.
Detail can be seen at http://www.lernu.net
Chin Wee had stated our the importance of subject-verb-agreement(SVA). It is always important for us to identified the subject in a sentence for the correct verb use. Thus, when writing an essay, we often need to remember in each sentence what subject we are discussing in order not to make de mistake.
I will like to suggest on how to make lesser mistakes on SVA. Firstly we can keep the sentences direct, easy and short. In this case, we may reduce the chances of committing such mistake. Secondly, we can create a long sentence, but always highlight on the subject we are talking to avoid such mistake.
Indeed, i agreed with Chin Wee that to master English language, we need to take note of other grammatical errors as well to write a fluent essay.
Subject-verb-agreement(SVA) is a common grammatical error where it needs to be corrected to write a good essay. If the verb is not correctly used in the sentence, it will make the sentence look weird where some readers will not be able to understand. Terence has made a good suggestion, keeping the sentences short will avoid making such errors. Nevertheless, this is only one of the grammatical errors that people make, we should take note of the other common grammatical errors to produce good essays to interest readers.
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