SUBJECT VERB

AGREEMENT

KATE GULPAN-BARDOQUILLO
SHS TEACHER II
 Verbs
Action words and
express state of being.
 Kinds of Verbs

Regular – form their past tense by adding d or ed to

the base form.
Irregular – form their past tense and past participle
in a different way.
Linking – are used to link or join the subject with a
word in the predicate which relates to the subject.
Helping/Auxiliary – accompanies another verb
Tenses of Verb
 Present Tense

Permanent action
Habitual action
On-going action
 Past Tense

Completed action
 Future Tense

Expresses an action that is yet to be done

 Present Perfect Tense

An action which is started in the past and is

continuing in the present.
An action which is completed at the time of speaking

HAS/HAVE + PAST
PARTICIPLE (of the main
verb)
 Past Perfect Tense

An action completed before another past action

A condition that was true in the past but is no longer
at the time of speaking.

HAD + PAST PARTCIPLE

 Future Perfect Tense

Denotes an action that will be completed before

another action
An action that will have been completed at some
definite future time.

SHALL/WILL + HAVE + PAST

PARTICIPLE OF THE MAIN VERB
 BASIC RULES OF SVA AND
GRAMMAR
A verb agrees with its subject in person
and in number.
The number of a noun in phrase
introduced by the preposition of does not
affect the number of verb.
Compound subjects joined by and
ordinarily take the plural form of the verb.
When two or more singular subjects are
joined by or or nor, a singular form of the
verb is required.
 BASIC RULES OF SVA AND
GRAMMAR
Intervening phrases introduces by of,
with, together with, as well as,
including besides, no less than, in
addition to, accompanied by, not, do
not affect the form of the verb.
Compound nouns joined by and use the
singular form of the verb if they are
regarded as a unit.
 BASIC RULES OF SVA AND
GRAMMAR
When the subject and predicate
nominative differ in number, the verb
must agree with the subject not the
complement.
Compound subjects joined by either-or,
neither-nor, not only-but also ordinarily
take verbs agreeing in number with the
nearer subject.
When the subject comes after the verb make sure
that the verb agrees with its subject.
 BASIC RULES OF SVA AND
GRAMMAR
Never begin a sentence with a participle
that does not logically modify the subject
of the sentence.
Sentence elements that are grammatically
connected should be closed together.
Modifiers should be places as near as
possible to the words they modify.
Avoid dangling modifiers.
 BASIC RULES OF SVA AND
GRAMMAR
Ordinarily, this and that take the singular
form of the verb while these and those take
the plural form of the verb.
The following indefinite pronouns belong
to the third person, They take the plural
form of the verb: all, both, few, many,
several, some.
The following indefinite pronouns,
whether singular or plural in meaning are
ordinarily used with the third person
 BASIC RULES OF SVA AND
GRAMMAR
Singular form of the verb: each, everybody,
everyone, any, anybody, anything,
somebody, someone, something, one,
nothing, nobody, either, neither, another,
the other.
• The title of the book is considered singular.
• The word “people”, meaning many persons
in plural. People refer to different races.
 BASIC RULES OF SVA AND
GRAMMAR
The expression “the number of” takes the
singular form of the verb, while the
expression “ a number of” takes the plural
form of the verb.
Noun referring to money, time,
measurement or distance that is preceeded
by an expression of amount or quantity is
considered singular and takes the singular
form of the verb.
 BASIC RULES OF SVA AND
GRAMMAR
The number of the noun that follows an
expression “of fraction” or “portion”
determines the number of the verb to be
used.
Sentences introduced by “it” take the
singular form of the verb.
The number of the subject of a sentence
introduced by “there” determines the verb
to be used.
 BASIC RULES OF SVA AND
GRAMMAR
The number of the subject of a sentence
introduced by “there” determines the verb
to be used.
The verb takes an “s” when it is used in the
third person singular of the present tense.
The expressions “one of the”, “the number
of”, and “a number of” are always followed
by plural nouns.
Some nouns are always plural in form.
 BASIC RULES OF SVA AND
GRAMMAR
Nouns such as Mathematics, Statistics,
Economics, Politics, Physics are used with
the singular form of the verb when they
refer to an area of study.
Possession is usually shown by adding ‘s.
The infinitive of a verb is always in the
simple form.
Nouns singular in form but function
collectively.
 BASIC RULES OF SVA AND
GRAMMAR
Always remember that the application of
subject-verb agreement also needs your
ears. If it sounds awkward, maybe there
must be something wrong. So evaluate
then your sentence once more.

THANK YOU!!!