Subject-verb agreement has a tendency to confuse a lot of people. This week I learned that subjects that are always singular take the form of either, each, anyone and everyone along with a few others. Meanwhile, subjects are always plural if the subject refers to different things. Or if the subject isn't considered a unit the subject will be plural. And according to the book, "When a compound subject contains or, or but, either or neither, the subject closest to the verb determines the number of the verb." (80)
When I walk down aisles at grocery stores I like to read the labels of the food that barely qualifies as food. i like to read the labels on the cereals called names like Marshmallows of the Breaded Variety. Or something to that extent. I walked by one cereal that had a coupon sticking out so I grabbed it. The coupon had its subject-verb agreement mixed up. The coupon said, "Buy one and another are free." the coupon, if a person, would be called a poor communicator. The coupon should have read, "Buy one and another is free." Well, it really should have said "Buy one and get one free." But that is for another post.
Good post, I also found it useful to study subject-verb agreement. It is difficult to master but also very important. Some sentences are especially challenging to determine what is the subject and what is the object, especially because the object can be either at the beginning or end of the sentence.
ReplyDelete