NRI Week 29: Subject/Verb Agreement II

Hi guys, this is Miss Horn and this is the

lesson on Subject Verb Agreement.

Part two for Week 29.

Um This is the second part of the subject for

agreement lesson.

Last time we talked about general rules for subject verb

agreement and this week we're going to talk about some

of the little fiddly trickier um rules and and processes

for figuring out subject verb agreement.

So let's get started.

We're gonna start by talking about agreement with complex subjects.

So sometimes there is a phrase that comes in between

the subject and the verb, and sometimes that phrase that

comes in between can make it a little hard to

figure out a proper subject verb agreement.

So the rule is when the subject and verb are

separated with a phrase like something along with or together

with or as well as or including something like that,

ignore the phrase in the middle and just make the

verb agree with the subject.

So it's always you need to match the subject along

with the verb.

So look at the two examples we've got here.

Dave along with as many brothers, is a big fan

of harry potter books.

So along with as many brothers um is kind of

a side fact.

The subject of the sentence is, Dave.

Dave is the one who's a big fan along with

his many brothers is just an add on.

It's irrelevant so we don't need to worry about that

as far as figuring out um agreement.

So Dave is singular, so is has to be singular.

Look at look at the second example, the black couches

as well as the mickey mouse picture are very stylish.

The black couches is plural and then our is plural

as well as the mickey mouse picture.

It's just an extra irrelevant phrase and we don't have

to consider it when figuring out agreement.

Okay, so remember if a phrase comes between the subject

and the verb and it's just an extra little bit

of information, it's not adding to the verb itself, so

not saying Dave and his brothers, um we're just saying

Dave and then his brothers are kind of on the

side. Then we need to match the subject with the

verb and leave the other phrase out who that and

which. So when who that are which comes between a

subject and verb, use the noun before it to figure

out whether the verb should be singular or plural.

Okay so let's look at the example, the robot that

does all Dave's homework is making weird noises.

So that does all Dave's homework is a phrase that's

telling us which robot is giving us additional information about

the robot.

So it doesn't have anything to do with whether the

subject robot is singular or plural.

So when you see a phrase like who, that or

which is just giving you extra information about the subject

is telling us um defining which exact subject we're talking

about. So the chairs that dave left on the patio

are soaking wet, chairs is plural.

Are has to be plural.

Okay, it doesn't matter that patio and Dave are both

singular. Those are not the subject.

It's the chairs that we're talking about.

And so that's plural.

So it has to have the plural verb.

Okay, so just like the phrases we talked about just

the previous slide um phrases to begin with that.

Who or which have you?

Just cross them right out.

Oh, I don't mind the crunching.

That's my talk.

Okay, singular collective noun.

So collective noun czar announce that represent a whole group

as a unit.

So when we talk about the words like group, team,

committee, class, um Band, orchestra.

Mhm. Anything like that?

Many of those collective noun where you have one now

that's referring to a whole group, but we're referring to

them as a unit.

Those are called collective noun.

Collective noun are treated most of the time like singular

noun. Um So if we're talking about one entity, one

unit, then we treat it as though it's singular and

it's going to be matched with a singular verb.

So look at the example, the team of swimmers is

going to mention Dave's name tonight.

So team, we're just talking about one team.

It's one group of swimmers of swimmers just tells us

which kind of t we're not talking about the football

team. We're not talking about the basketball team.

This is a team of swimmers.

So team is singular.

So uh the verb has to be singular.

Okay, so it's collective noun are generally for talking about

just one individual group of them then um then it's

going to be singular.

Okay, who next?

We're going to talk about agreement with numbers and amounts.

So it's really important to get um in your head

mixed, separated out the idea of numbers and amounts.

Um So let's talk first about part of a hole

with a singular subject verb.

So we're talking about one portion Of something, so whether

it's half 50%, 1 3rd majority of parts, some all

the verb has to match the object of the preposition.

Okay, so we say two thirds of Dave's cake is

already gone.

So we're talking about a portion of the cake cake

is singular.

So we use a singular verb.

It's the same rule that you would use for some

or all which we talked about last week in um

mm for usage.

Okay. Let's look at the second example though, two thirds

of Dave's brownies are already gone.

Brownies is plural.

Therefore we're going to use the plural form of the

verb which is our.

Okay. So if I'm using a part of a whole

then whether it's singular or plural depends on what the

whole is in this case, cake or brownies.

Right. So if I said half of the team team

is singular, so half of the team is gone.

Um 2/3 of the players are gone.

Okay, so you really have it really depends on what

that noun is at the end of the prepositional phrase.

Okay, mathematical terms.

So in general mathematical terms like sum and product or

singular. So they're going to use singular verbs.

So Dave realized that the sum of two and five

is seven so some is seven.

It doesn't matter that two and five are numbers higher

than one, right?

Higher than singular.

Because we're talking to some is the actual subject of

the sentence, gave money in time.

We're talking about total amounts of money or total periods

of time.

Then we use them, we talked about them as singular.

We're talking about one unit.

So Dave hopes that two years is all we'll take

him to make the varsity spot.

So we're talking about two years as one chunk of

time. So even though it's made up of obviously to

individual years, it's one unit of time.

Um And because we're talking about it as a total

amount of time as opposed to counting each individual year

separately. We talk about it we use a singular verb.

That one is a little tricky, I'm not gonna lie.

So it's like the difference between saying I have 50

pennies, pennies would be um pennies would be Plural vs

saying I have 50 cents total.

That's a one unit total.

Okay, numbers, so generally numbers greater than one take plural

verbs. So Dave hopes that two books are enough to

last them for the long flight.

So if you I use numbers just in general to

to count how many items I have, then it's going

to any number above one is going to take a

pour over.

Okay, so agreement with tricky subjects tricky is not wrong.

Okay, so we talked about this last week in our

usage lesson, singular identity, uh indefinite pronoun.

Excuse me.

So words each either, neither everybody as are everyone.

Every everyone, everyone, everybody anyone anyone, anybody, someone somebody, nobody

and no one are all singular.

So all of those are singular.

And again, we talked about that last week in the

usage. So if I say each of Dave's friends is

going home to play video games, so each is the

subject the indefinite pronoun um and then it has to

go with a singular verb.

So all of these, every single one of them would

be would be using a singular verb.

Okay, so they're always all going to be singular.

Both few many, all in several are always going to

be plural in every circumstance.

Um When I say many of Dave's friends are going

home to play video games, many in place, it's got

to be more than one and I can't use the

word Benny if I'm talking about just one.

So it has to be plural.

Now sometimes there announced that are, you know, we think

of as one unit, but they really are made up

of multiple parts.

So for example, um glasses, um glasses, even though it

is one thing.

So I take my pair of glasses.

Um My glasses are I think of them the singular

because it's one object, I just pick it up with

one hand.

Um But it really is, it's two lenses.

So it does make it is it is made up

of multiple parts.

Same thing with scissors, your pants, they have two legs,

right, trousers, shears, tweezers, goggles, shorts, Each of those things.

Um Because of the way that the word has been

created, they are considered plural.

There were talking about multiple parts of a single item.

So look at the example.

Dave thought his glasses were on the couch.

We wouldn't say Dave for his glasses was on the

couch because glasses is written as a as a plural

form. And so the same thing with go with scissors

or pants or goggles or whatever any of these types

of words.

Some singular noun end in s.

Not most of them, but a few of them do

now. It's like news, Mathematics, measles, civics, economics, usually when

we have a singular noun that ends in S.

It's because we're talking about more kind of a concept

of something.

So when I talk about the news, um I'm talking

about an idea of this kind of system that provides

us information.

Um Same thing with mathematics.

Mathematics is a system for expressing amounts and numbers.

Um And because of that it ends with S.

But they are because it's just one concept one system.

Then we use a singular noun for it or singular.

Excuse me.

So the news is going to mention David staying tonight.

So the news one singular is going to mention days

thing to it and that's it.

Hopefully this has helped you clear things up and uh

study, study, study and make uh kick this test booty

on. No red ink.

Good luck guys.

NRI Week 29: Subject/Verb Agreement II

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