Grammar learning - Agreement

AGREEMENT

There are two types of agreement: subject-verb agreement and pronoun-antecedent agreement.

Every sentence in English can be divided into two parts: the subject and the predicate.

Example:

A baby cries

   P

The donkeys are playing in outside.

                                       P

The determine the complete subject of a sentence, ask a who or what question. The answer to that question will be the complete subject. Example:

The issues of Tsunami are in west Aceh is the warming.

What is the warming? The issues of Tsunami are in west Aceh.

There is normally one word in the complete subject that controls the verb in the sentence. To determine this main (or simple) subject, find the word that the other words modify.

Notice that main (simple) subject of a sentence is never located in a prepositional phrase (a phrase beginning with a preposition and ending with a noun or pronoun). Example:

Both of the reporters on the news are boring.

The word There, even though there is often the grammatical subject of a sentence, it is linked to a word later in the sentence that controls the verb. Example:

There is no student passed the examinations.

Compound subjects are those in which the subject is composed of more than one item. The items are often connected by and. Sometimes words appear to be compound subjects, but they really constitute a single phrase made up of two more items acting as a unit. These take a singular verb. Example:

Cat and dog are the animal which friendly with human.

Pronoun-antecedent agreement is similar to subject-verb agreement. In forma English, pronouns agree in person, number, and gender with their antecedents (words to which they refer). The pronouns everyone / everybody, anyone / anybody, someone / somebody, and no one / nobody are often treated differently in conversational and standard formal English.

Example:

Each person gives their money to help poor people.

In formal English, subjects connected by either / or and neither / nor behave differently from compound subjects. The subject that is closer to the verb determines the agreement.