Introduction
In brief English, like all languages, has rules about what words or forms of words can be put together to create sentences. Many of these rules about sentence construction concern the importance of agreement. Here we discuss the importance of agreement between the subject of your sentence and its verb.
To help you to understand how to achieve subject/verb agreement in your writing we will describe:
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how to identify a sentence's subject |
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how to identify a sentence's verb |
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the meaning of 'agreement' and some basic rules for creating agreement |
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examples of subject types which always take singular verbs |
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examples of subject types which always take plural verbs.
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Identifying the subject of a sentence
The subject of a sentence is the main person, idea or thing that your sentence is about. Subjects of sentences are generally classified as being simple or complete.
Simple subjects
A simple subject consists of a single noun or pronoun. Simple subjects may occur at the beginning of a sentence or in the body of the sentence. The following examples show nouns and pronouns as simple subjects of sentences.
| Example
1 Titanium is used for aircraft frames because it is light and strong. |
| Example 2 To safeguard structures, engineers normally work within a factor of safety to keep materials within their permitted working stress. |
| Example 3 She used a mathematical formula to solve the problem. |
Complete subjects
Frequently, the subject of your sentence will contain more than a single noun. This type of subject is called a complete subject. A complete subject consists of the simple subject and its modifiers and/or qualifiers.
Example 2 In other words, instead of going up and down the Wankel piston rotates in the cylinder. |
Remember, the subject of your sentence is
| the noun, or |
| the pronoun, or |
| the word group acting as the noun, |
that is the topic of the action or state expressed in the remainder of your sentence.
Self-check 1
Identify the subjects in the following sentences. Type your answer in the left-hand box. When you have completed all six exercises, click the 'Submit your answer' button and compare our answers with your own.
| 1. Under normal conditions, aluminium resists corrosion. | |||
| Subject: | Our answer: | ||
| 2. Because of gravity, bodies have weight. | |||
| Subject: | Our answer: | ||
| 3. We can divide metals into ferrous and non-ferrous metals. | |||
| Subject: | Our answer: | ||
| 4. Nickel, cobalt and chromium are added to steels. | |||
| Subject: | Our answer: | ||
| 5. A tensile force will make a body longer. | |||
| Subject: | Our answer: | ||
| 6. The main shaft of the lathe drives the lubricant pump. | |||
| Subject: | Our answer: | ||
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