1. A verb agrees with its subject in person and in number. Wrong: They doesn't understand what to do.
Right: They
don't understand what to do.
2. The number of noun in phrase introduced by the preposition of does not affect the number of verb.
Wrong: A list of books were made by Merry.
Right: A list of books was made by Merry.
Right: Here
come Alvin and Junjun.
4. When to or more singular subjects are joined by or or nor, a singular form of the verb is required.
Wrong: A man's success or failure lie his hands.
Right: A man's success or failure lies his hands.
5. Intervening phrases introduced by of, with, together with, as well as, including, besides, no less than, in addition to, accompanied by, not, do not affect the form of the verb.
Wrong: The teacher, together with her pupils, were there.
Right: The teacher, together with her pupils, was there.
6. Compound nouns joined by and use the singular form of the verb if they are regarded as a unit.
Bread and butter
were all she ask for.
Rice and
vegetable is the staple food of the Filipinos.
7. When the subject and predicate nominative differ in number, the verb must agree with the subject not the complement.
Wrong: The theme of the essay are the experiences of our heroes.
Right: The theme of the essay is the experiences of our heroes.
8. Compound subject joined by either-or, neither-nor, not only-but also ordinarily take verbs agreeing in number with the nearer subject.
Wrong: Not only the students but also the teacher are learning.
Right: Not only the students but also the teacher is learning.
9. When the subject cames after the verb make sure that the verb agrees with its subject.
Wrong: In this school is enrolled several alien students.
Right: In this
school are enrolled several alien students.
10. Never begin a sentence with a participle that does not logically modify the subject of the sentence.
Wrong: Walking around the campus, the bell rang.
Right: Walking around the campus, I heard the bell rang.
11. Sentence elements that are grammatically connected should be closed together.
Wrong: I, after the class, went to the movies.
Right: I went to the movies after my class.
12. Modifiers should be placed as near as possible to the words they modify.
Wrong: He rushed into the room just as we are singing the last song breathless with excitement.
Right: Breathless with excitement, he rushed into the room just as we are singing the last song.
Wrong: Having taken the entrance examinations, the President of the college accepted me.
Right: After I had the entrance examinations, the President of the college accepted me.
14. Ordinarily, this and that take the singular form of the verb while these and those take the plural form of the verb.
That is a good
idea.
These are times
that try man's soul.
All were satisfied.
Both are to be blamed.
16. The following indefinite pronoun, whether singular or plural in meaning are ordinarily used with the third person singular form of the verb: each, everybody, everyone, everything, any, anybody, anything, somebody, someone, something, one, thing, nobody, either, neither, the other.
Each arrives on time. Everything is in order.
17. The title of a book is considered singular. The "Dialogs" of Plato is great classic.
18. The word people, meaning many person in plural, Peoples refer to different races. The people were excited about the news.
The peoples at
Asia need to be united.
The number of
students in the class is limited.
A number of
books are on reserved in the library.
20. Noun referring to money, time measurement or distance that is preceded by an expression of amount or quantity is considered singular and take the singular form of the verb.
Five hundred pesos of apple are yours. Four weeks is a long time to wait for you.
Half of the apple was eaten by the rats. One half of the apple is yours.
It is my duty
to take care of our parents.
23. The number of the subject of a sentence introduced by there determines the verb to be used.
There are times when she is lonely. There are six school days in a week.
Ramen Lloyd
plays football vigorously.
25. The
expressions one of the, the number of and a number of are always
followed by the plural nouns.
One of the girls is absent.
A number of books were stolen.
The number of apples was rotten.
26. Some nouns are plural in form. Measles, mumps, pants, shorts, scissors, trousers The news for today is about the Government’s corruption.
27. Nouns such as Mathematics, Statistics, Economics Politics, and Physics are used with the singular form of the verb when they refer to an area of study.
Mathematics is
required or Math majors.
Politics is not
dirty perse, but the politicians are the ones making it dirty.
28. Possession
is usually shown by adding apostrophe (') or apostrophe and s ('s) to a noun.
The student's
Club.
29. The infinitive of the verb is always in the simple form. To love is an adventure.
Long ago,
Pidoy's dream was to live in a forest.
30. Nouns singular in form but function collectively. Information, food, equipment, jewelry.
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