Six rules of Subject Verb agreement

There are a few of us who could use some quick lessons in the use of subject and verb in English.  You may have read a lot of rules and completed many sets of exercises to get them right, but here are six simple rules that will make it easy to comprehend and retain the lesson learnt.

Rule 1 - A singular subject uses a singular verb and a plural subject takes a plural verb.

How simple can it get?

Ex -The boy plays. ( Singular subject, singular verb)

The boys play. ( Plural subject, plural verb)

Rule 2 - When you use some or all in a sentence, the verb can be either singular or plural depending on whether the subject can be counted or not.

Ex-  Some of the chairs in the conference room are wobbly. ( You can count the chairs.)

Some of the tea from the teapot has spilt on the carpet. ( Tea is a non count subject.)

You can count tea if it were served in tea cups and thus if you say ” Six of the tea cups are cracked”, you will be right!

Rule 3 – When you use each, everyone, someone, anyone then the verb is always singular.

Each of you is responsible for the outcome.

Everyone in class has to have completed the exercise by Thursday.

Someone has to pick me up at the station tomorrow.

Rule 4 – When you use together with, along with or as well as even though they behave like conjunctions and link two phrases, the form of the verb will depend on the first subject.

If the first subject is singular, then the verb used is singular too.

The teacher ( First subject)along with the students ( Second subject) was at the marathon.

The students( first subject)together with the teacher( second subject) were at the celebrations after the marathon.

Rule 5 – When you use neither or either without the or and nor then the verb will always be singular. For ex -

Neither of the dresses she showed me was out of the world.

Will you prefer tea or coffee?

Either of them is ok.

Rule 6 - When neither or either is used in a sentence with the or and nor then the verb will always take the form of the second subject.

Neither Rajen nor his colleagues (second subject is plural) were at the meeting.

Either the engineers or Nair ( Second suject is singular) is representing the company at the conference.

Direct vs Reported Speech

Another area that needs correction is the way we use Direct speech when we report something. For example -

She told me, I will follow you, you go ahead, when I asked her to the cafeteria.

In most regional languages of India, we use the direct speech even when we report it to someone. Think back in your first language – which should be easy, because that is exactly what we do when we frame sentences in English! The corrected sentence should be this -

She told me she would follow me and asked me to go ahead when I asked her to the cafeteria.

Here is what I found on about.com, which gives you the rules, lesson plans, quizzes which focuses on using the reported speech in conversation.

http://esl.about.com/b/2008/09/05/tell-others-what-she-said.htm

Simple vs Continuous

Indians are poor communicators. We speak in long drawn sentences which affects the ‘punch’ of what we want to say. When we have to use the simple tense, we use the continuous.The ‘quality’ of our communication, therefore, suffers.

Look at these sentences.
Are you getting a message?
What I am expecting is…

The present continuous tense is to be replaced with the simple present tense.
So the sentence then becomes -

Do you get a message?
What I expect is..

The next time you are tempted to use the continuous tense, remember to KISS – Keep It Simple, Stupid:-)

Tip – Avoid Indianisms

We think in our first language and frame sentences in English. The effect of that is grammatical and structural errors. Indianisms (as we call it) greatly affect the quality of communication- both written and spoken. Learn to avoid Indianisms to make your communication crisp, short and effective.

* When writing emails, always remember to use active voice
* Use short sentences
* Do not repeat words for emphasis
* In speech,do not use question tags at the end of sentences
* Watch out for Subject – Verb interchange
* Avoid unnecessary explanations

Use of Can and Able

When you say ” I can” or ” I cannot” , it talks about ability. It means ” You are able to or you are not able to.” Therefore, using ” can” and “able” together in the same sentence is an error.

Ex- Instead of saying ” I can able to remember the details” say, ” I can remember or I am able to remember”

Tip – How to speak lesser errors.

The best way to keep your sentences error free, is to speak shorter sentences. The longer the sentence, the more the errors. When you think in your first language and speak in English, the scope of errors increase. You tend to add a few extra words or speak in the continuous tense. By making your sentences shorter, these errrors can be avoided.