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Mood indicates the manner of the action or state expressed by the verb.
Note: The indicative mood is also used for conditional statements expressing a
strong degree of certainty.
• If Paz is looking for a house, I know just the one for her.
• If the sun shines today, it will be hot.
• If she likes to attend the party, she will be telling me.
◦ Present subjunctive
▪ If that man over there were Jose, he would have to us.
▪ If we lived far north, we could play in the snow anytime we wanted to.
◦ Past subjunctive
▪ If Mr. Cruz had been on the train, we could have sat by him.
▪ If Mr. Santos had been our coach, he would have known what to do in such
a situation.
▪ If he were the President, he would have solved this problem easily.
◦ Future subjunctive
▪ If it should rain tomorrow, I would call you.
▪ If he would approve the proposal, we could start the project right away.
• The subjunctive is used to express action after verbs denoting suggestion, command or
the like.
SUBJECT-VERB Agreement
1. A singular subject takes a singular verb and a plural subject takes a plural verb.
2. When or, nor, neither....nor, either...or connect two subjects one of which is singular and
one plural, the verb agrees with the nearer subject.
• Neither the hunter nor his friends are expected to return tomorrow.
• The teachers or their Principal is requiring the parents to attend the meeting.
• Either they or I am to blame.
3. A collective noun takes a singular verb except when the members of the group are
regarded individually.
4. The connectives with, together with, including, as well as, no less than, when used to join
the subject of a sentence with other substantives, do not change the number of the subject.
5. The expression many a implies “a large number” but takes a singular verb.
• Many a hunter has been lost in the jungle.
• Many a young soldier has perished in battle.
6. The pronoun all when it means everything or the only thing takes a singular verb.
• What I want to know is why he came late and whether he brought a sack of rice.
• What I believe is he intentionally did that to humiliate me.
9. The verb agrees with its subject – not with the predicate noun.
10. Two or more subjects connected by and require a plural verb. But when these subjects
designate the same person or thing, the verb is singular. Close related ideas expressed by a
compound subject may take a singular verb.
11. Quantities and sums, or multiples of numbers expressing a single idea require a single
verb.
12. Fractions take a singular verb if the object of the of-phrase that follows is singular; and
a plural verb if the object of the of-phrase is plural.
13. When a compound subject is composed of an affirmative and negative part, the verb
agrees with the affirmative part of the subject.
15. A compound subject (two subjects connected by and) takes a plural verb.
16. There is (was) precedes a singular noun, and there are (were) precedes a plural noun or
compound predicate.
18. In lots of, all of, and some of, lots, all, and some have the same number as the object
of of.