AGREEMENT - COMPLETE LESSON
Master subject-verb agreement rules in English grammar!
LESSON 1: SINGULAR AND PLURAL
- Singular words refer to one person, place, thing, or idea
- Plural words refer to more than one - formed by adding "s" or "es"
- Irregular plurals: child to children, leaf to leaves, sheep to sheep
THE BASIC PRINCIPLE
- A singular subject must have a singular verb; a plural subject must have a plural verb.
TRICKY CASES
- Always singular: each, either, one, neither, anybody, somebody
- Always plural: several, few, many, both
- Singular or plural: all, some, any can be either depending on context
Perfect for mastering English grammar fundamentals!
Like, Subscribe, and Share with friends learning English!
#EnglishGrammar #SubjectVerbAgreement #Grammar #LearnEnglish #LanguageLearning #Education #ESL
Master subject-verb agreement rules in English grammar!
LESSON 1: SINGULAR AND PLURAL
- Singular words refer to one person, place, thing, or idea
- Plural words refer to more than one - formed by adding "s" or "es"
- Irregular plurals: child to children, leaf to leaves, sheep to sheep
THE BASIC PRINCIPLE
- A singular subject must have a singular verb; a plural subject must have a plural verb.
TRICKY CASES
- Always singular: each, either, one, neither, anybody, somebody
- Always plural: several, few, many, both
- Singular or plural: all, some, any can be either depending on context
Perfect for mastering English grammar fundamentals!
Like, Subscribe, and Share with friends learning English!
#EnglishGrammar #SubjectVerbAgreement #Grammar #LearnEnglish #LanguageLearning #Education #ESL
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LearningTranscript
00:00:11Hi, I'm Carl Weber. Welcome to Video Aided Instruction's English grammar series.
00:00:18In this program, we'll be discussing the art of agreement.
00:00:22Think of a sentence as being like a machine, made up of various kinds of parts.
00:00:27A sentence, of course, is made up of parts called words.
00:00:31We give them names like noun, verb, pronoun, adjective, adverb, and so on.
00:00:38These are the parts of speech.
00:00:41Of course, the parts of a machine must be carefully chosen to fit together.
00:00:45You wouldn't want to put the transmission from an 82 Chevrolet into a 96 Honda,
00:00:52not if you wanted the car to run properly.
00:00:55In the same way, the parts that are chosen to fit into a sentence must be carefully selected to work
00:01:01together properly.
00:01:02In grammar, this is known as the principle of agreement.
00:01:06In this program, we'll look at some of the most common problems with grammatical agreement.
00:01:11You'll learn some simple rules for making sure that the sentences you write obey the principle of agreement.
00:01:17Follow these rules, and the sentences you write will hum like a well-tuned engine.
00:01:23Ready? Let's begin.
00:01:30The first kind of agreement that's important for you to understand is agreement between subjects and verbs.
00:01:36And when we're dealing with subjects and verbs, the most important kind of agreement has to do with singular and
00:01:42plural.
00:01:43Let's start with the basic rules for understanding this kind of agreement.
00:01:47First, what does singular and plural refer to?
00:01:51Singular words refer to one person, place, thing, or idea.
00:01:56Here are a few examples of singular words.
00:02:00Woman, village, kayak, time.
00:02:05Each of these refers to one person, place, thing, or idea.
00:02:10A woman is a person.
00:02:12A village is a place.
00:02:13A kayak, which is a kind of boat, is a thing.
00:02:17And time is an idea.
00:02:20Now, plural words refer to more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
00:02:27Here are some examples of plural words.
00:02:30Women, villages, kayaks, times.
00:02:35In each of these cases, we've taken the singular word that we gave you a moment ago and turned it
00:02:40into plural.
00:02:41Now it refers to two or more women, villages, kayaks, or times.
00:02:46Now, in English, plural nouns are usually formed by adding the letter s or es to the singular form.
00:02:54So, for example, the word car, which is singular, becomes plural simply by adding the letter s at the end,
00:03:01cars.
00:03:02The word box becomes plural by adding es at the end, boxes.
00:03:07Perhaps you can see that simply adding the letter s at the end would create a word that's rather awkward
00:03:13-looking and difficult to pronounce.
00:03:15And that's why words that end in x are generally made plural by adding es rather than simply s.
00:03:22In other cases, the spelling of the word varies slightly in order to turn the singular into the plural.
00:03:28Take a look at this word.
00:03:30The singular is story.
00:03:32The plural is stories.
00:03:35Once again, es has been added at the end of the word.
00:03:38But notice that the letter y has been changed to an i, so that the spelling of stories is s
00:03:45-t-o-r-i-e-s.
00:03:47A small but important change that's necessary to know if you're going to use this word correctly.
00:03:53Most English plural words end in s or es, but a few form their plurals in unusual or special ways.
00:04:01And it's important to recognize these rules as well.
00:04:05These have to do with proper spelling.
00:04:07Here are some examples of these exceptional words.
00:04:11Men, women, and children are three words that are frequently used in English and all form their plurals in unusual
00:04:18ways.
00:04:19The singular of men is man, so you see that the vowel a has been changed into an e to
00:04:25turn the word from singular to plural.
00:04:28Similarly, the singular of women is woman, spelled with an a.
00:04:33And again, the vowel has been changed to e to turn singular into plural.
00:04:38The singular of children is child, so here the letters ren have been added at the end.
00:04:44What's the rule or principle that underlies these changes?
00:04:47Well, there really is none.
00:04:49You simply have to remember and apply these rules when you use these words.
00:04:53Take a word like leaf.
00:04:56When we turn this into a plural, not only do we add es at the end, but we also change
00:05:02the spelling.
00:05:03The f that ends the word leaf turns into a v, and the plural form of leaf is leaves.
00:05:09Many, though not all words that end in f, are turned into plurals in just this way, by changing the
00:05:16f into a v.
00:05:17And then adding es.
00:05:19And then there are a few words referring to different kinds of animals, which are exactly the same in the
00:05:24singular and the plural.
00:05:26For example, sheep is the singular referring to one kind of animal.
00:05:30And if you had a whole flock of them, you would refer to a flock of sheep.
00:05:35Yes, the word sheep is exactly the same in the singular and the plural.
00:05:40Here's a tip.
00:05:41When you're writing an English sentence, and you have to use a plural word, and you're not certain how to
00:05:48form the plural, look it up in your dictionary.
00:05:51You'll find that for any word where the plural is formed in an unusual way, you'll be told exactly how
00:05:57to form it.
00:05:58But again, the vast majority of words in English are turned from singular to plural, simply by adding es or
00:06:05es at the end.
00:06:07Now, all the words we've looked at so far are nouns, words that name people, places, things, or ideas.
00:06:14Verbs can also be singular or plural.
00:06:17In many cases, the singular and plural form of the verb are exactly the same.
00:06:22But in a few cases, the singular and plural are different.
00:06:26Once again, you need to learn how these are formed and practice using them correctly.
00:06:31In most cases, it's very easy to recognize and use the singular and plural.
00:06:35One thing about English that may be a little bit confusing is that the singular forms of verbs often end
00:06:43in es or es.
00:06:45This can be confusing because, as we saw a moment ago in the case of nouns, es or es at
00:06:51the end is usually the sign that a plural is involved.
00:06:55With verbs, it's just the opposite.
00:06:57The singular form of verbs often end in es or es.
00:07:01So, for example, look at these phrases.
00:07:03She jumps, they jump.
00:07:07He does, they do.
00:07:11Notice that in each case, the singular form of the verb ends in es or es, while the plural form
00:07:18of the verb does not.
00:07:19Once again, it's simply a rule you need to learn and understand and apply to English.
00:07:25There's no rhyme or reason behind it.
00:07:27That's just the way it's done in the English language.
00:07:29Now, the basic principle for using singular and plural nouns and verbs properly is quite a simple one.
00:07:37It goes like this.
00:07:38A singular subject must have a singular verb.
00:07:42A plural subject must have a plural verb.
00:07:46Well, this may seem obvious enough.
00:07:49The problem is that in some specific kinds of sentences, applying this rule can get a bit tricky.
00:07:55Let's look at some of these tricky situations next.
00:07:59One of the situations in which subject-verb agreement may be a little tricky is when the subject of the
00:08:05verb is an indefinite pronoun.
00:08:07Now, in this series, we have an entire program devoted to pronouns and how to use them.
00:08:13You'll probably want to view that program in order to improve your background knowledge of pronouns and how to use
00:08:19them.
00:08:19But for our purposes today, you simply need to know that an indefinite pronoun is a word that's used in
00:08:27place of a noun and whose reference is indefinite or uncertain.
00:08:32Indefinite pronouns are words like someone, anyone, all, none, some, most, and so on.
00:08:40You can see from this list that indefinite pronouns refer to people or things in a way that's a little
00:08:47bit unclear.
00:08:48You can't know for sure who or what is being referred to by an indefinite pronoun unless you look at
00:08:55the entire context of the sentence or paragraph in which the indefinite pronoun is used.
00:09:01And that's why indefinite pronouns can sometimes make for tricky subject-verb agreement problems.
00:09:08In order to use indefinite pronouns correctly and match them up with the proper singular or plural verb, you need
00:09:15to know a few basic rules.
00:09:17Here's what you need to understand about indefinite pronouns.
00:09:21Basically, indefinite pronouns can be broken down into three categories.
00:09:25Some are always singular, some are always plural, and some may be either singular or plural, depending on the context.
00:09:34The following indefinite pronouns are always singular.
00:09:37Each, either, one, neither, and all pronouns ending in body or one, such as anybody, somebody, nobody, anyone, no one,
00:09:53and someone.
00:09:55Whenever you use one of these indefinite pronouns as the subject of a verb, always consider the pronoun singular and
00:10:03use a singular verb as well.
00:10:05Now, the following indefinite pronouns are always plural.
00:10:09Both, few, many, others, several.
00:10:16Perhaps you can see from this list that these indefinite pronouns always refer to more than one person, place, thing,
00:10:23or idea.
00:10:24That's why they're considered plural grammatically and need to be matched up with a plural verb.
00:10:29Now, here comes the tricky bit.
00:10:31There are five pronouns, which may be either singular or plural, depending on how they're used.
00:10:37We call these the Sanam pronouns, simply because those letters, S, A, N, A, M, are an acronym that reminds
00:10:47us of the five pronouns that are involved,
00:10:50because each of those letters is the first letter of one of the indefinite pronouns that fits into this category.
00:10:57The five Sanam pronouns are some, any, none, all, and most.
00:11:05These five pronouns, the Sanam pronouns, may be either singular or plural, depending on how they're used.
00:11:12Take a look at these two sentences.
00:11:15Some of the pie was eaten.
00:11:17Some of the students were late.
00:11:20Now, in both of these sentences, an indefinite pronoun is the subject of the verb.
00:11:27Look at the first sentence.
00:11:28Some of the pie was eaten.
00:11:30The verb here is was eaten.
00:11:32That's a verb phrase that begins with the helping verb was.
00:11:36What's the subject of the verb?
00:11:38Some.
00:11:39Some was eaten.
00:11:40Some of what?
00:11:41Some of the pie.
00:11:42But the pronoun some is the specific word which is the simple subject of the verb.
00:11:47Now, is that pronoun singular or plural?
00:11:52In this case, it's referring to some of the pie, which is a single thing, one piece of the pie.
00:11:58Therefore, we consider the pronoun singular in this sentence,
00:12:02and that's why the singular verb was eaten is correct.
00:12:06However, look at this sentence.
00:12:08Some of the students were late.
00:12:10Here the verb is were, and that's a plural verb.
00:12:13Why is a plural verb used?
00:12:15Once again, the subject is the indefinite pronoun some.
00:12:19But in this sentence, some refers to more than one person.
00:12:24Some of the students means two, three, four, a group of students.
00:12:28And therefore, it refers to a plural subject, and that's why the plural verb were is correct.
00:12:34So we have the same word, the same indefinite pronoun as the subject in each of these two sentences.
00:12:40But in one case, the subject is singular.
00:12:43In the other, it's plural.
00:12:44That's the way it is with the San Am pronouns.
00:12:47Here's a tip that will help you tell whether the San Am pronoun is singular or plural in a particular
00:12:53sentence.
00:12:54The San Am pronoun is usually followed by a prepositional phrase.
00:12:59In both of these sentences, the prepositional phrase begins with the preposition of, of the pie, of the students.
00:13:08If you look at the prepositional phrase and look at the object of the prepositional phrase,
00:13:13that will provide a clue as to whether the San Am pronoun is singular or plural.
00:13:18If the object of the prepositional phrase is singular, then the San Am pronoun is singular.
00:13:24If the object of the prepositional phrase is plural, then the San Am pronoun is also plural.
00:13:31That's why some of the pie is singular, because pie is singular.
00:13:36Whereas some of the students is plural, because students is plural.
00:13:40So look at the prepositional phrase that follows the San Am pronoun,
00:13:45and that will give you a clue as to whether the San Am pronoun is singular or plural.
00:13:51Here's another tricky situation for subject-verb agreement.
00:13:55In some sentences, the subject of the verb is a collective noun.
00:13:59Now, what is a collective noun?
00:14:02A collective noun is a noun that's singular in form.
00:14:05That is, it usually doesn't end in s or es,
00:14:08but which refers to a group of people, places, things, or ideas.
00:14:14Some examples of collective nouns are team, group, class, flock, committee, family.
00:14:23I think you can see that in each of these cases, the word refers to a number of people
00:14:28who are all gathered together under a single word.
00:14:32And that's why we call these collective nouns.
00:14:35Here's the rule.
00:14:37When the subject of the verb is a collective noun,
00:14:40use either a singular verb or a plural verb, depending on how the noun is used.
00:14:46When the noun refers to the group as a whole, use a singular verb.
00:14:51When the noun refers to the group as individuals, use a plural verb.
00:14:56Here are a couple of examples that should clarify this distinction.
00:15:00Look at this sentence.
00:15:02The team is ready for the game.
00:15:05The verb here is is.
00:15:08And the subject of the verb is team.
00:15:10And team is a collective noun.
00:15:12It refers to a group of people who all play a particular sport.
00:15:16Now, in this sentence, we're told the team is ready for the game.
00:15:19That means the team as a whole is ready.
00:15:22All of them together are set as one unit.
00:15:25They're prepared and ready to play.
00:15:27Therefore, in this particular case, the collective noun refers to the group as a whole.
00:15:33And therefore, a singular verb is, is appropriate.
00:15:37Contrast that with this sentence.
00:15:39The team are dressing in the locker room.
00:15:42Once again, the collective noun team is the subject of the verb.
00:15:46In this case, the verb is, are dressing.
00:15:49And here, a plural verb has been used.
00:15:52Why?
00:15:53Well, think about what the team is doing.
00:15:55When the team are getting dressed, it's a group of individuals who are all getting dressed.
00:16:00One person is probably putting on his shoes.
00:16:02Another person may be tying his tie.
00:16:04A third person may be combing his hair.
00:16:06They're all doing different things at the same time.
00:16:09All of which adds up to the collective group dressing together.
00:16:13But it's a number of individuals doing separate things that go to make up the act of dressing in the
00:16:19locker room.
00:16:20So in this case, the collective noun is being used to refer to a group of people who are doing
00:16:26things separately.
00:16:27And that's why treating the collective noun as plural and using a plural verb is appropriate in this sentence.
00:16:35I'll point out that in the majority of cases, collective nouns are singular and are used as such.
00:16:42So when in doubt, go with a singular verb.
00:16:45Because in most cases, when a collective noun is used, the group is being referred to as a whole.
00:16:51And it is the exception when the collective noun is being used to refer to the group as a collection
00:16:57of individuals, as in this case.
00:17:00But that's the rule, and now you know why collective nouns will sometimes be used with a singular verb, sometimes
00:17:06with a plural verb.
00:17:07If you practice this distinction, you shouldn't have too much difficulty using collective nouns.
00:17:13Here's another tricky situation for subject-verb agreement.
00:17:17A subject that describes an amount is singular.
00:17:22Sometimes the subject of a verb appears to be plural, and yet when you think about it, it's describing an
00:17:28amount which is really one thing.
00:17:31Here's an example.
00:17:33One million dollars is a lot of money.
00:17:36In this case, the verb is, is, which is singular.
00:17:40What's the subject of the verb?
00:17:42Well, the subject is the phrase, one million dollars.
00:17:45Now, that certainly looks plural.
00:17:48Dollars has an S at the end, and it does refer to lots of dollars, more than one dollar.
00:17:53One million of them, in this case.
00:17:55So, one million dollars certainly seems as though it ought to be plural.
00:17:59But let's think about what the sentence is saying.
00:18:01The sentence is talking about one million dollars as an amount.
00:18:05And it's talking about it as one thing.
00:18:08It's saying that this whole pile of money, all added together, is a lot of money.
00:18:13That's why a singular verb is appropriate in this case.
00:18:17Because, although it's plural in form, the phrase describes an amount.
00:18:22And therefore, we treat it as singular.
00:18:24Here's another example.
00:18:27Five minutes in the dentist's chair feels like a long time.
00:18:31Here the verb is feels.
00:18:34Again, it's singular.
00:18:35What's the subject?
00:18:36Five minutes, or minutes.
00:18:39Once again, it's grammatically plural.
00:18:41It ends in S.
00:18:42And it does refer to more than one thing.
00:18:44Five minutes.
00:18:45But if we step back and think about how the phrase is being used,
00:18:49it really refers to the five minutes as a single unit.
00:18:52One stretch of time.
00:18:54Which may be very unpleasant when you're sitting in the dentist's chair.
00:18:58And that's why it feels like a long time.
00:19:00So that one stretch of time, that one amount, is treated as singular.
00:19:05And that's why a singular verb is appropriate.
00:19:09Finally, one more tip for another type of tricky situation.
00:19:13The phrase, the number, is singular.
00:19:16The phrase, a number, is plural.
00:19:20These two phrases might seem equivalent.
00:19:22And yet, they're treated differently for grammatical purposes.
00:19:25Here's what we mean.
00:19:27The number of children in the family is three.
00:19:30In this case, we're using the phrase, the number.
00:19:33And this is really an example of the situation we talked about a moment before.
00:19:38The subject, in this case, is describing an amount.
00:19:41The amount of children, or the number of children in the family.
00:19:44So we really consider it singular.
00:19:46The number is three.
00:19:49Look at this example.
00:19:50A number of children are waiting for their parents.
00:19:54Now, in this case, we're using the phrase, a number.
00:19:57Which may look very similar to, the number.
00:20:00But in this context, what the phrase, a number of children, is referring to, is several children.
00:20:06More than one child.
00:20:08Three, four, five children.
00:20:10That's what we mean when we say, a number of children.
00:20:13So in this case, the subject of the verb is really plural.
00:20:16And that's why the plural verb, are waiting, has been used.
00:20:19The basic rule that's easy to remember is, the number is singular.
00:20:24A number is plural.
00:20:27Subject-verb agreement is usually a simple matter in most sentences.
00:20:32Singular subject, singular verb.
00:20:34Plural subject, plural verb.
00:20:36But in tricky situations like the ones we've just seen,
00:20:39it can be a little difficult to tell what type of verb is appropriate to use.
00:20:43The rules we've just covered should help.
00:20:46Turn to your study guide.
00:20:48We've provided an exercise that will give you a chance to practice these rules,
00:20:52and test your ability to choose the right verb for certain tricky situations in English.
00:20:57Try your hand at the questions, and when you're finished, come back to this program,
00:21:01and we'll look at them together.
00:21:10In each of these sentences, a verb was omitted, and your job is to decide which of the two verbs
00:21:17you're given to choose from is correct in the context.
00:21:20In each case, the two verbs that are provided are first singular, then plural.
00:21:26So if you could figure out whether the subject was singular or plural, it would be pretty easy to choose
00:21:31the correct verb.
00:21:33Let's see how well you did.
00:21:34The first example reads,
00:21:36400 pages, seams, or seam, like an awfully long reading assignment for the holiday weekend.
00:21:44Here the two verbs are singular seams, plural seam.
00:21:48What's the subject, and is it singular or plural?
00:21:51Well, the subject is the amount, 400 pages.
00:21:55It looks plural, and it certainly is plural in form, since pages ends in S, and it does refer to
00:22:02more than one page, in fact, 400 pages.
00:22:05But remember our rule that a subject that describes an amount is normally singular.
00:22:11In this case, the entire amount, 400 pages, that long book, is being treated and considered as a single thing.
00:22:19That whole amount is a long reading assignment.
00:22:23And that's why the singular verb, seams, would actually be correct.
00:22:28Remember that when the subject is plural in form, but it describes an amount which is treated as one thing,
00:22:35you want a singular verb.
00:22:37And that's why seams would be correct in this sentence.
00:22:41Our next example.
00:22:43Neither of the injured dancers is, or are, feeling well enough to perform this evening.
00:22:49Here we have a choice between the singular verb, is, and the plural verb, are, which is correct.
00:22:56Well, the subject is neither.
00:22:58And you might recall that neither is one of the pronouns.
00:23:01That's an indefinite pronoun which is always singular.
00:23:05That's one of the pronouns on that list which would always be singular.
00:23:09And in fact, if you think about how the pronoun is being used, you can see that it refers to
00:23:15one person.
00:23:16When we say neither of the dancers, we mean each one of them, one at a time.
00:23:21We're considering that each of them, individually, is not feeling well enough to perform this evening.
00:23:27Since we're talking about each of the dancers one at a time, it should be considered singular.
00:23:33And the pronoun neither is singular grammatically.
00:23:37And that's why the singular verb is would be correct in this sentence.
00:23:43Our next example.
00:23:45The orchestra has or have recently completed a successful tour of several Asian countries.
00:23:51Now, in this sentence, the subject is the collective noun, orchestra.
00:23:56The word orchestra is singular in form, but it refers to a large number of people.
00:24:01Eighty, ninety, a hundred people go together to make up an orchestra.
00:24:05So it's a collective noun.
00:24:07And remember, a collective noun may be either singular or plural, depending on how it's used.
00:24:14Most often, a collective noun is singular.
00:24:16And that is when the collective noun is being used to refer to the group as a whole doing one
00:24:23action together.
00:24:24In some exceptional circumstances, the collective noun may be plural if the sentence is describing actions taken by each of
00:24:32the individual members of the collective noun.
00:24:36How is this collective noun being used?
00:24:38Well, we're told that the orchestra completed a successful tour of several Asian countries.
00:24:44Does that describe an action taken separately by all of the individual members of the orchestra?
00:24:49The oboists, the drummers, the fiddle players, the horn players?
00:24:56No, it's describing something that the entire orchestra did together as a unit.
00:25:01Therefore, the collective noun is being used to refer to the group as a unit and should be considered singular.
00:25:08So we want the singular verb, has, rather than the plural verb, have.
00:25:12The sentence should read, the orchestra has recently completed a successful tour of several Asian countries.
00:25:20The next sentence.
00:25:21All of the stonemasons working on the cathedral is or are residents of Harlem.
00:25:28Once again, we have to decide whether the subject is singular or plural.
00:25:32Now, what is the subject of the verb?
00:25:34Is it cathedral, stonemasons, or all?
00:25:38It's actually the pronoun all.
00:25:41The sentence is not saying something that the cathedral is or are, nor is it saying something that the stonemasons
00:25:48is or are.
00:25:49It's saying something that all is or are.
00:25:53And in the next lesson in this program, we'll explain exactly why the pronoun all should be zeroed in on
00:25:59as the subject of the verb.
00:26:01It's a little bit tricky in its own right.
00:26:03But the indefinite pronoun all is the subject of this verb.
00:26:07Now, is all singular or plural?
00:26:10Remember that all is one of the five indefinite pronouns that we call the sanam pronouns.
00:26:16Some, all, none, any, and most.
00:26:21Those five pronouns may be either singular or plural, depending on how they're used.
00:26:26Now, in this case, is the pronoun all referring to one or more than one person?
00:26:32Remember our tip.
00:26:34Look at the prepositional phrase that follows the sanam pronoun, and that will give you a clue as to whether
00:26:40one or more than one subject is being referred to.
00:26:43Here, the prepositional phrase that follows the pronoun all is of the stonemasons.
00:26:49And the object of that preposition of is masons, which is plural.
00:26:54So, taken together, the entire phrase, all of the stonemasons, is referring to more than one person.
00:27:00It's a group of stonemasons.
00:27:02So, in this case, the sanam pronoun all is being used as a plural pronoun, and so a plural verb
00:27:09is necessary.
00:27:10The sentence ought to read, all of the stonemasons working on the cathedral are residents of Harlem, plural.
00:27:19And our last example.
00:27:21Everyone in the class was or were surprised at how easy the final exam was.
00:27:27Once again, an indefinite pronoun is being used as the subject of the verb.
00:27:31In this case, the indefinite pronoun is everyone.
00:27:34Now, remember what we said.
00:27:36All indefinite pronouns that end in either body or one are always singular.
00:27:41So, everyone, someone, no one, all three of those indefinite pronouns would always be treated as singular grammatically.
00:27:52So, we need a singular verb in this sentence.
00:27:55And it ought to read, everyone in the class was surprised at how easy the final exam was.
00:28:01Were you surprised at how easy these questions were?
00:28:04I hope so.
00:28:05Let's move on to our next lesson.
00:28:12As we've seen, the basic principle of subject-verb agreement isn't very difficult.
00:28:17A singular subject needs a singular verb, and a plural subject needs a plural verb.
00:28:22In the last lesson, we looked at certain types of words which make it a little tricky to determine whether
00:28:29the subject is singular or plural.
00:28:31Specifically, we looked at indefinite pronouns and collective nouns.
00:28:36Now, there are other kinds of sentences in which determining subject-verb agreement can be a little bit tricky.
00:28:41And in this lesson, we're going to look at some of these other types of tricky sentence structures which make
00:28:47subject-verb agreement a little bit difficult.
00:28:50One tricky type of sentence for subject-verb agreement involves a compound subject.
00:28:55Now, as you may recall, a compound subject consists of two or more parts which are joined by a conjunction,
00:29:04usually and or or.
00:29:06And taken together, these parts make up the subject of the verb.
00:29:11Now, when the subject is compound, if the parts of the compound subject are joined by and, you usually use
00:29:18a plural verb.
00:29:20Here's an example.
00:29:21Omar and Sarah are going bowling.
00:29:25Here, the verb is, are going, and the subject is the compound subject, Omar and Sarah.
00:29:33We have two parts joined by the conjunction and, and this is a very typical kind of compound subject.
00:29:40Notice that although each of the parts of the compound subject is singular, Omar, Sarah, each of these is a
00:29:48singular word.
00:29:50Taken together, they make up a compound subject which is treated as plural.
00:29:54After all, Omar and Sarah are two people, and therefore the subject of this verb now refers to more than
00:30:02one person.
00:30:02It's plural, and a plural verb, are going, is required.
00:30:07So this is the most typical kind of compound subject where we have two or more parts joined by the
00:30:13conjunction and,
00:30:14and normally this would be treated as a plural subject.
00:30:18However, there are two exceptions.
00:30:20First, if the two parts together make up one thing, use a singular verb rather than a plural verb.
00:30:30Here's an example.
00:30:32The skull and crossbones was a famous pirate symbol.
00:30:36Now, in this sentence we have a compound subject, skull and crossbones, two things joined by the conjunction and.
00:30:44So your immediate inclination would probably be to say, well, this is a plural subject,
00:30:49and so we need a plural verb.
00:30:51And that means that the verb was is wrong.
00:30:54That's singular, and we should use the plural were instead.
00:30:58Here's the problem.
00:31:00In this case, the compound subject doesn't really refer to two or more things.
00:31:05Instead, the skull and crossbones is one symbol.
00:31:09Perhaps you've seen pictures of pirate ships from the old days flying a black flag with a symbol of a
00:31:15skull and crossbones.
00:31:16Taken together, that symbol, the skull and crossbones, makes up one image,
00:31:22which is being described in this sentence as a famous pirate symbol.
00:31:26Since the two things that are mentioned here really go together to form one image or one symbol,
00:31:32we treat it as singular grammatically, and that's why the singular verb was is actually correct in this sentence.
00:31:39The skull and crossbones was a famous pirate symbol.
00:31:43This exception to the rule doesn't come up very often, but when it does, you should be aware of it
00:31:49and be looking for a singular verb rather than a plural verb.
00:31:53Here's the second exception.
00:31:54If the two parts of the compound subject are preceded by each or every, use a singular verb.
00:32:04When we use the words each or every in front of the parts of a compound subject,
00:32:09we are really changing the subject so that we're talking about each element of the subject separately and individually,
00:32:16and that's why we're turning the subject from plural into singular.
00:32:20Look at this example.
00:32:22Each pot and pan was washed and carefully put away.
00:32:26Notice that in this sentence we've got the singular verb was, was washed and was put away,
00:32:33rather than the plural verb were.
00:32:35Why is that?
00:32:36Well, here we do have a compound subject, pot and pan, joined by the conjunction and,
00:32:43which would normally lead us to expect a plural verb, but it's preceded by the word each,
00:32:49and therefore the subject is changed from plural to singular.
00:32:53We're now talking about each individual pot and pan, one at a time,
00:32:58and therefore we use the singular verb was rather than plural.
00:33:03Once again, this exception doesn't come up too often.
00:33:06Ninety percent of the time, when you have a compound subject that consists of two or more parts joined by
00:33:12the conjunction and,
00:33:14you want a plural verb.
00:33:15But in this particular case, you want a singular verb instead.
00:33:20Now, when the subject is compound, if the parts of the compound subject are joined by the conjunction,
00:33:27or, we have a different rule.
00:33:29In this case, the verb should match the subject that is closest to the verb.
00:33:36This is a slightly strange and surprising rule, but let's look at a couple of examples and you'll see how
00:33:41it works.
00:33:43Either Andre or his parents have left an umbrella in the closet.
00:33:47Now, here we have a compound subject which consists of two parts, Andre, his parents.
00:33:53Now, notice that one of the parts is singular, Andre.
00:33:56The other is plural, his parents.
00:33:59And they're joined by the conjunction, or.
00:34:01That means the rule kicks in that the verb should agree with whichever subject is closer to the verb.
00:34:08We have two subjects, one singular, one plural.
00:34:11Which one is closer to the verb have left?
00:34:15Well, his parents is closer to the verb than Andre.
00:34:19Since the plural subject is closer to the verb, it comes second in the compound subject, the verb should also
00:34:27be plural.
00:34:28So, have left is correct.
00:34:30What does this mean?
00:34:31It means that if you were to reverse the order of the parts in the compound subject in this particular
00:34:38sentence,
00:34:39the verb would have to change.
00:34:40So, if the sentence were changed to read like this, either Andre's parents or Andre, then the verb would have
00:34:48to be has left.
00:34:50Singular would now be correct because Andre, the singular subject, is now closer to the verb than the plural subject.
00:34:59So, it does make a difference what order the subjects are given in this particular type of situation.
00:35:05So, when the compound subject consists of two or more parts separated by OR, decide on subject-verb agreement by
00:35:15looking at the subject that's closer to the verb.
00:35:18One more example.
00:35:20The students or their teacher is expected to close the classroom door.
00:35:24Same kind of situation.
00:35:26Here we have two subjects separated by OR.
00:35:30Students, their teacher.
00:35:32The first one, students, is plural.
00:35:34Their teacher is singular.
00:35:36Which one should the verb match?
00:35:38Well, since their teacher is closer to the verb, is expected is correct.
00:35:43That's a singular verb and it matches up with their teacher, which is also singular.
00:35:50We've been talking about compound subjects quite a bit.
00:35:53Here's another somewhat tricky or misleading situation that many students get wrong.
00:35:58Words like, as well as, and in addition to, do not create a compound subject.
00:36:06Now, you might think that words or phrases like, as well as, and in addition to, should be grammatically the
00:36:12same as the word, and.
00:36:15After all, they mean much the same thing.
00:36:17But grammatically, they are treated differently.
00:36:19The conjunction and creates a compound subject when it's used to join two words or phrases describing subjects of the
00:36:28verb.
00:36:28However, when the phrase as well as, or the phrase in addition to, is used in place of the conjunction
00:36:34and, the effect is different.
00:36:37Take a look at this sentence.
00:36:38The principal, as well as her husband, was a special guest at the awards banquet.
00:36:44The verb is was.
00:36:46What's the subject?
00:36:47Well, the subject is principal.
00:36:49Notice that her husband is not part of the subject in this case.
00:36:53We don't have a compound subject because, rather than the conjunction and, the phrase as well as has been used.
00:37:01You might also notice that in this particular sentence, the words as well as her husband have been set off
00:37:07by commas.
00:37:08That indicates correctly that that entire phrase, as well as her husband, is a bit of an interrupter.
00:37:15It comes in between the subject and the verb and doesn't become part of the subject.
00:37:20Therefore, the subject is the singular principle and the singular verb was is correct.
00:37:26If we were to take away the words as well as and substitute the conjunction and, notice what would happen.
00:37:34We'd get rid of the commas and the sentence would now read, the principal and her husband were special guests
00:37:40at the awards banquet.
00:37:42Now we would have a compound subject joined by the conjunction and, principal and her husband,
00:37:49and the two together would make up the subject which would become plural and the verb would have to become
00:37:54the plural were.
00:37:55But as long as the phrase as well as is used, we don't have a compound subject.
00:38:01We have a singular subject only and a singular verb is required.
00:38:06When words separate the subject and the verb, finding the subject may be tricky.
00:38:12We've already seen several sentences where this was the case, where isolating and identifying the subject of the verb is
00:38:19not so easy,
00:38:20because a number of words come in between the subject and the verb.
00:38:24Here's a tip that helps with 90% of these sentences.
00:38:29Eliminate prepositional phrases before trying to identify the subject.
00:38:34As a general rule, a prepositional phrase never contains the subject of the verb.
00:38:40And therefore, when you're looking for the subject of a sentence in order to make sure that you've got subject
00:38:46-verb agreement correct,
00:38:48you can mentally eliminate all the prepositional phrases.
00:38:52All the phrases that begin with those little prepositions.
00:38:55Words like of, in, by, for, from, to, with, and so on.
00:39:03Eliminate those prepositions and the words that follow them, and what remains must contain the subject.
00:39:08That's an easy way of eliminating all the words that might distract you from isolating the real subject,
00:39:15and therefore confuse you as to how subject-verb agreement should work.
00:39:19If you can eliminate the prepositional phrases, that will help you a lot in zeroing in on the correct subject
00:39:25of the verb.
00:39:26Take a look at this example.
00:39:28The distance between the Earth and the more distant stars of our galaxy is difficult to measure.
00:39:36In this case, the verb is easy to find, as it usually is in most sentences.
00:39:42The verb is, is.
00:39:44Now, that's a singular verb.
00:39:45Is the sentence correct or incorrect?
00:39:47Well, we have to identify the subject in order to determine whether a singular verb is correct or incorrect.
00:39:53Now, what is the subject?
00:39:55What is it that's difficult to measure?
00:39:57Is it the distance?
00:39:59Is it the Earth?
00:40:00Is it the stars?
00:40:02Is it the galaxy?
00:40:03All of those are nouns, and any one of them could be the subject of the verb.
00:40:07But which one really is the subject of the verb?
00:40:10Well, in order to figure out what's difficult to measure, we need to eliminate prepositional phrases.
00:40:15That will help us zero in on what the real subject of the verb is.
00:40:19And there are a few prepositional phrases here.
00:40:22Between the Earth and the more distant stars is one prepositional phrase.
00:40:26And of our galaxy is another prepositional phrase.
00:40:30Between and of are both prepositions.
00:40:33And the words that follow those prepositions and are linked to them are the objects of the prepositions.
00:40:39By eliminating those phrases, we can see that what's left is the distance.
00:40:43And in fact, that makes sense.
00:40:46After all, that's what is difficult to measure.
00:40:48The distance is what is difficult to measure.
00:40:52So the sentence is saying that the distance is difficult to measure.
00:40:56Distance is a singular word.
00:40:57And so the singular verb, is, is correct.
00:41:01You might have been confused because the noun stars, for example, is plural.
00:41:06And that might lead you to momentarily think,
00:41:09well, perhaps we need a plural verb in this sentence.
00:41:11It's not true.
00:41:12Eliminate the words that come between the subject and the verb,
00:41:16particularly the prepositional phrases.
00:41:19And what remains is the real subject.
00:41:21And that will tell you how subject-verb agreement ought to be handled.
00:41:25In addition, when the subject follows the verb, finding the subject may be tricky.
00:41:32As you've already seen, in the great majority of English sentences,
00:41:36the subject comes before the verb.
00:41:38But occasionally, that's not true.
00:41:40And in that case, you need to look after the verb to find the subject and make sure that it
00:41:46agrees with the verb.
00:41:47Here's a tip.
00:41:48In a question or in a sentence beginning with there or here, the subject usually follows the verb.
00:41:57So when you're dealing with a sentence which poses a question or which begins with there or here, look after
00:42:04the verb to find the true subject.
00:42:06Here are a couple of examples.
00:42:09Are the computers ready for installation?
00:42:12Here the verb is the very first word in the sentence, are.
00:42:16And that's often the case with questions.
00:42:18There's a question mark at the end of this sentence, which is certainly a telltale sign that we're dealing with
00:42:24a question here.
00:42:25Since the verb comes first, obviously the subject must come later.
00:42:30Now, what's the subject of the verb are?
00:42:33Well, the subject is the noun computers.
00:42:36Notice that if we were to turn this sentence away from being a question into being a statement,
00:42:42it would read something like, the computers are ready for installation.
00:42:45And then it would be obvious that computers is the subject of the verb are.
00:42:49Since computers is plural, the verb are, which is also plural, is perfectly correct.
00:42:56Because this is a question, we need to look after the verb to find the subject.
00:43:02One more example.
00:43:04There is a good reason for my lateness this morning.
00:43:08In English, many times we speak sentences or write sentences that begin with there is, there are, here is, here
00:43:16are.
00:43:16You might at first glance think that there or here is the subject, but neither of those is a noun,
00:43:23and so therefore they can't really be the subject of the verb.
00:43:26Remember our tip.
00:43:28In sentences that begin with there or here, the verb normally precedes the subject.
00:43:34The subject comes after the verb.
00:43:36In this case, the verb is, is, and what follows, reason, is actually the subject.
00:43:42Reason is singular, and so the singular verb is, is correct.
00:43:47Once again, when a sentence begins with there or here, the subject normally follows the verb,
00:43:53so look after the verb to find the subject and make sure it matches with the verb in terms of
00:43:58number, singular or plural.
00:44:01Do you think you've mastered these tricky situations and how to apply subject-verb agreement appropriately in each of these
00:44:08types of sentences?
00:44:10Well, let's test that.
00:44:11We've provided an exercise in your study guide that will test the skills we've just discussed.
00:44:16Try your hand at those questions, and when you're finished, come back to the program, and we'll see how well
00:44:21you did.
00:44:30Once again, in this exercise, your job is to select the correct verb to match up properly with the subject,
00:44:36and in some of these sentences, that's a rather tricky matter.
00:44:40Let's see how well you did.
00:44:41First, the governor, having met with her advisers and developed a negotiating strategy for dealing with the angry workers,
00:44:49was or were finally ready to join the bargaining session.
00:44:54Here we have to decide whether to use the singular was or the plural were.
00:44:59And the question is, what's the subject of the verb?
00:45:02Who or what was or were finally ready to join the bargaining session?
00:45:07Well, the subject and the verb in this sentence are separated by a lot of words.
00:45:11One clue in this case is that there's a comma representing a pause surrounding a lengthy phrase here in the
00:45:19middle of the sentence.
00:45:21I'm referring to the words, having met with her advisers and developed a negotiating strategy for dealing with the angry
00:45:27workers.
00:45:28All of those words are giving more information about or modifying the governor.
00:45:34So all of that is a bit of an interruption and aside.
00:45:38It's something that gives additional information about the governor, but which is not part of the actual subject.
00:45:44The person who was or were finally ready to join the bargaining session was or is the governor.
00:45:52So the word governor is the subject of the verb.
00:45:55Governor is singular. It only refers to one person.
00:45:58And so the singular verb was would be correct.
00:46:02Notice how in order to identify the proper subject in this sentence,
00:46:06you have to ignore all the words that come between the subject and the verb.
00:46:11And don't be distracted by them.
00:46:13You might see, for example, the word workers, which is plural and think, hmm.
00:46:18Well, maybe workers, plural verb requires a plural noun, requires a plural verb.
00:46:24But that's not the case because the workers, that's not the subject of the verb.
00:46:29The workers were not finally ready to join the bargaining session.
00:46:33It's the governor who was finally ready.
00:46:35Singular subject, singular verb.
00:46:38Next example.
00:46:40Here in the deepest recesses of the ocean is or are some of the most mysterious creatures on Earth.
00:46:47Remember our rule that a sentence beginning with there or here usually has the subject following the verb.
00:46:55And that's the case here as well.
00:46:57The verb is is or are.
00:46:59And what follows is what is or are in the deepest recesses of the ocean.
00:47:05What's the subject?
00:47:06The subject is some of the most mysterious creatures on Earth.
00:47:10It's that indefinite pronoun some, which is the true subject of the verb is or are.
00:47:17Now, is some singular or plural?
00:47:20Now, we kick in with one of our rules from earlier in this program.
00:47:23Remember that some is one of the five Sanam pronouns.
00:47:27Some, all, none, any, and most.
00:47:31Each of these five indefinite pronouns may be either singular or plural depending on how the pronoun is used in
00:47:38the sentence.
00:47:39And as a clue, we said check out the prepositional phrase that follows.
00:47:43That will usually tell you whether the Sanam pronoun is singular or plural.
00:47:48In this case, the Sanam pronoun some is followed by the prepositional phrase of the most mysterious creatures on Earth.
00:47:56Since the pronoun is referring to some of the most mysterious creatures, plural, the pronoun is being used as plural
00:48:05in this case as well.
00:48:06Some, therefore, is plural, and the proper verb to go with that subject would also be plural.
00:48:12So the verb should be are, and the sentence would read,
00:48:15Here in the deepest recesses of the ocean are some of the most mysterious creatures on Earth.
00:48:21In effect, this sentence tested two of your rules.
00:48:24First, that in a sentence beginning with here or there, the subject usually follows the verb.
00:48:31And second, with a Sanam pronoun, you usually need to look at the prepositional phrase that follows the pronoun to
00:48:38determine whether it's singular or plural.
00:48:41Next example.
00:48:43Either the members of the defensive squad or Coach Mayo himself is or are sure to have some explanation for
00:48:50the way the game ended.
00:48:52Now, what's the subject of the verb is or are?
00:48:55In this case, we have a compound subject, two items, two parts connected by the conjunction or.
00:49:02Here's where our rule kicks in.
00:49:05Remember that when the parts of a compound subject are joined by the conjunction or,
00:49:10the verb should match the subject that's closer to the verb.
00:49:16Now, in this case, we have two parts.
00:49:18The members of the defensive squad, which is plural, and Coach Mayo, which is singular.
00:49:23That refers to just one person.
00:49:26Which of these two parts is closer to the verb?
00:49:28The answer is, Coach Mayo, which is singular.
00:49:32So we want a singular verb.
00:49:34The sentence ought to read, either the members of the defensive squad or Coach Mayo himself is,
00:49:40sure to have some explanation for the way the game ended.
00:49:43If the two parts of the subject were to be reversed in order,
00:49:47if Coach Mayo came first and the members of the defensive squad came second,
00:49:51then the verb ought to be plural.
00:49:53But that's not the way the sentence is written, and therefore the singular verb is what we want.
00:49:59Next example.
00:50:00The story of the 400 members of the 29th Cavalry and their heroic exploits on several battlefields is,
00:50:08or are, truly remarkable.
00:50:11Once again, we have a sentence in which there are a lot of words that separate the verb from the
00:50:16real subject.
00:50:17Remember one of our tips.
00:50:19When you're in doubt as to where the subject of a sentence really is,
00:50:23eliminate all the prepositional phrases,
00:50:25because the subject of the verb will not be found in the prepositional phrase.
00:50:29This sentence has quite a few prepositional phrases.
00:50:32Look at them with me.
00:50:34Of the 400 members.
00:50:36That's a prepositional phrase beginning with the preposition of.
00:50:40Of the 29th Cavalry and their heroic exploits.
00:50:43Again, a prepositional phrase beginning with the preposition of.
00:50:47On several battlefields.
00:50:49Another prepositional phrase beginning with the preposition on.
00:50:53None of these phrases contains the subject of the verb.
00:50:56The real subject of the verb is in what remains.
00:50:59The story.
00:51:01What is truly remarkable?
00:51:03It's the story that's truly remarkable.
00:51:06That's singular.
00:51:07And so the singular verb is, is correct.
00:51:10It would be easy to get subject-verb agreement wrong in this sentence
00:51:13because there are so many plural nouns here.
00:51:16Members.
00:51:17Exploits.
00:51:18Battlefields.
00:51:19You have all those plural nouns ringing in your ears when you come to the verb is or are,
00:51:24and it's easy to select are thinking, well, I've got a plural subject here.
00:51:29But remember, eliminate the prepositional phrases because they don't contain the subject.
00:51:34The real subject is story.
00:51:36It's the story that's remarkable and therefore the singular verb is, is correct.
00:51:42Our last example.
00:51:43The elementary school cafeteria offers 12 kinds of sandwiches,
00:51:48yet peanut butter and jelly remains or remain the most popular of all.
00:51:54Here we have a compound subject, peanut butter and jelly,
00:51:57and the two parts of the compound subject are joined by the conjunction and.
00:52:02In almost every case, the compound subject where the parts are joined by the conjunction and would be treated as
00:52:11plural.
00:52:12So the plural verb remain would normally be correct.
00:52:16But here we have one of our exceptions.
00:52:17Remember that in a few instances, the two parts of a compound subject joined by and really go together to
00:52:25form a single thing.
00:52:27We saw the example of the skull and crossbones which formed a single symbol.
00:52:32In this case, we have another example of a compound subject which really amounts to a single thing.
00:52:39Peanut butter and jelly is one kind of sandwich.
00:52:42One recipe, if you will.
00:52:44It's a single dish rather than two separate things.
00:52:47So what's being described here is really one sandwich and therefore the compound subject, peanut butter and jelly,
00:52:54should really be treated as singular.
00:52:56Because peanut butter and jelly is actually one thing for the purposes of this sentence.
00:53:01So in this somewhat tricky example, the singular verb remains would be correct.
00:53:07And the sentence should read,
00:53:09The elementary school cafeteria offers 12 kinds of sandwiches,
00:53:12yet peanut butter and jelly remains the most popular of all.
00:53:17Did you get all five of these sentences correct?
00:53:20If so, you've really mastered these tricky rules about subject-verb agreement.
00:53:24Good job.
00:53:31So far, we've been talking about agreement between subjects and verbs.
00:53:35In this lesson, we're going to talk about agreement between pronouns and antecedents.
00:53:41As you know, a pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun.
00:53:44And the noun to which the pronoun refers, or whose place the pronoun takes, is called its antecedent.
00:53:51The antecedent may or may not appear in the same sentence or paragraph.
00:53:56Sometimes you have to do a little thinking to figure out what the antecedent of the pronoun is.
00:54:01Nonetheless, it's important that the pronoun and its antecedent match in a couple of ways.
00:54:07The basic rules are these.
00:54:09First, a pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number.
00:54:13That is, a singular antecedent requires a singular pronoun.
00:54:18A plural antecedent requires a plural pronoun.
00:54:21Second, a pronoun must agree with its antecedent in gender.
00:54:26By gender, we mean masculine, feminine, or neuter.
00:54:31Now, in the English language, gender is natural.
00:54:35In other words, masculine, feminine, and neuter are used grammatically in English simply the way the same qualities exist in
00:54:44the natural world.
00:54:45Thus, human beings all have gender.
00:54:48They're either masculine or feminine.
00:54:50And inanimate objects are normally neuter.
00:54:54Sometimes animals are treated as having gender.
00:54:57A cow would normally be a she, because a cow is feminine.
00:55:01Whereas a bull would be considered a he, because a bull is masculine.
00:55:08In other cases, however, animals could be treated as neuter.
00:55:12You could probably get away with calling a cow and a bull it.
00:55:16Both could be treated with the neuter pronoun it.
00:55:21And it's very rare that inanimate objects other than human beings or animals are assigned a gender in English.
00:55:29They're almost always treated as neuter.
00:55:32Once in a while, an inanimate object may be treated as masculine or feminine.
00:55:37For example, sometimes someone might speak about their boat as being she.
00:55:42But that's rather rare and unusual.
00:55:45So, for all practical purposes in the English language, gender is natural and not purely grammatical.
00:55:52Of course, this is different from some other languages that you may know, where it's necessary to memorize the gender
00:55:59of long lists of nouns.
00:56:01The sun, the moon, the stars, all of these are assigned masculine or feminine attributes grammatically.
00:56:08That's not the case in English.
00:56:10All of those inanimate objects would simply be referred to as it, using the neuter pronoun.
00:56:17However, when you're dealing with human beings, and in some cases with animals, you do need to be aware of
00:56:22gender and use masculine or feminine appropriately.
00:56:25The pronouns he, him, and his are masculine.
00:56:30The pronouns she, her, and hers are feminine.
00:56:34The neuter pronouns are it and its.
00:56:37And these are used for antecedents that are neither masculine nor feminine.
00:56:41Notice that the plural pronouns they, them, and their can be used for antecedents of any gender, masculine, feminine, or
00:56:50neuter.
00:56:51So once you move from singular to plural, everything becomes very simple.
00:56:55You don't have to worry about gender anymore.
00:56:58Again, these basic rules are quite simple, and in most sentences you won't run into any difficulty in following them
00:57:05and making sure that the pronouns and antecedents match both in number and in gender.
00:57:11But there are a few tricky situations that arise, and we'll cover those now.
00:57:15First, use a singular pronoun to refer to a singular indefinite pronoun.
00:57:22Use a plural pronoun to refer to a plural indefinite pronoun.
00:57:27Now we've seen earlier in this program that indefinite pronouns can be tricky to use in terms of their singular
00:57:36and plural qualities.
00:57:37Indefinite pronouns may sometimes seem to refer to plural qualities, that is, to groups of people, and yet be treated
00:57:45as grammatically singular.
00:57:48All the same rules that we discussed earlier in this program about which indefinite pronouns are singular and which ones
00:57:55are plural
00:57:56would apply when matching them up with pronouns that refer back to these pronouns.
00:58:02So follow the same rules in terms of singular and plural, and any pronouns that refer back to indefinite pronouns
00:58:09should be used correctly in your sentences.
00:58:12Here's an example.
00:58:14Each of the men was waiting for his wife.
00:58:17Now, here we have the pronoun his referring back to the antecedent each.
00:58:24Each of the men was waiting for his wife.
00:58:27Whose wife?
00:58:27Each of their wives.
00:58:29Each is the antecedent of the pronoun his.
00:58:33So we have a pronoun acting as an antecedent for another pronoun, which can sometimes happen.
00:58:39Now, remember, the antecedent and the pronoun must match in number.
00:58:44So, in order to determine whether the pronoun his is correct, we need to look back at that antecedent and
00:58:50decide whether it's singular or plural.
00:58:52Is the antecedent each singular or plural?
00:58:55Well, remember that the indefinite pronoun each is one of the ones on the list that are always singular.
00:59:03Each is always singular, and therefore, to refer back to it with a singular pronoun is perfectly correct.
00:59:09Notice, too, that the verb was waiting is also singular, and that's also correct.
00:59:13So the entire sentence is singular.
00:59:16Each is a singular indefinite pronoun.
00:59:19The singular verb, was waiting, is correct.
00:59:21And the singular pronoun his, referring back to each, is also correct.
00:59:27Here's a different example.
00:59:28Many of the women were waiting for their husbands.
00:59:32Now, here we have the pronoun their, which refers back to the antecedent many.
00:59:38Many, we're waiting for their husbands.
00:59:41Now, what about that pronoun many?
00:59:43Is it singular or plural?
00:59:45Again, it's an indefinite pronoun, so the answer isn't necessarily obvious.
00:59:50Once again, many is one of our Sanam pronouns.
00:59:53Those five pronouns which may be either singular or plural, depending on how they're used.
00:59:59And our tip is always to look at the prepositional phrase that follows the Sanam pronoun to help you determine
01:00:06whether it's singular or plural.
01:00:08In this case, many is followed by the prepositional phrase of the women.
01:00:12And the object of that prepositional phrase is plural, women.
01:00:17Therefore, the Sanam pronoun many is also plural, and their, the pronoun that refers back to many, is also correct.
01:00:26Many is plural, the verb we're waiting is plural, and their is also plural.
01:00:33All these three match together, and therefore, the sentence is perfectly correct.
01:00:38So, when you're using a pronoun that refers back to an indefinite pronoun, use the rules we've already talked about
01:00:46to determine whether that indefinite pronoun is singular or plural, and choose the next pronoun appropriately to match.
01:00:55Now, when the antecedent of a singular pronoun may be either male or female, you need to use he or
01:01:03she, him or her, or his or hers.
01:01:08Remember, we saw that with singular pronouns, gender is an issue, masculine and feminine.
01:01:13With plural pronouns, it's not an issue, because in English there are no masculine and feminine genders for plural pronouns.
01:01:21So, when you're setting up a singular pronoun, you need to know whether the antecedent is male or female.
01:01:28In most cases, this isn't difficult. You're either talking about a man or a woman.
01:01:32But sometimes the antecedent may be of uncertain gender, and I don't just mean someone who looks strange walking down
01:01:38the street.
01:01:39What I'm talking about is a sentence like this one.
01:01:42Everyone should bring his or her notebook to class.
01:01:46Now, here we have the phrase his or her.
01:01:49Both masculine and feminine pronouns are being used here, and that's correct for a specific reason.
01:01:56What is the antecedent of his or her?
01:01:59What does his or her refer to?
01:02:01Well, it refers back to the indefinite pronoun, everyone.
01:02:05And when you think about what's being said in this sentence, we can't really tell whether everyone refers to a
01:02:12male or a female.
01:02:13Now, this might be false in a specific circumstance.
01:02:19For instance, suppose this happened to be a class made up of nothing but men.
01:02:23Perhaps it's a class on how to be a better father.
01:02:26In which case, we would know that everyone in the class is a male, and we could assume then that
01:02:32everyone refers only to males.
01:02:34And we would write the sentence differently.
01:02:36We could say, everyone should bring his notebook to class.
01:02:40On the other hand, it could be a class made up only of women.
01:02:43It could be a class in auto repair for women.
01:02:46If everyone in the class were female, then the sentence could correctly read, everyone should bring her notebook to class.
01:02:53However, most classes nowadays include both men and women.
01:02:57And so, the indefinite pronoun everyone needs to be considered in this case as possibly either masculine or feminine.
01:03:05Under these circumstances, the correct way to set up the sentence is by using the phrase his or her.
01:03:11And that's what we've done in this sentence.
01:03:13Everyone should bring his or her notebook to class.
01:03:16That way, no matter whether the individual student is male or female, the correct pronoun would have been used.
01:03:22Now, this sentence is an interesting example of how language reflects social changes.
01:03:28At one time, the rule for this kind of sentence was different.
01:03:31The rule at one time, a number of years ago, was that in English, you would use the masculine pronoun
01:03:37in a sentence like this.
01:03:39The idea seemed to be that girls were invisible.
01:03:42Women could be ignored, or they would simply be considered as included within the masculine pronoun.
01:03:48And there are still a few very old-fashioned writers who still follow that rule.
01:03:53They would write this sentence, everyone should bring his notebook to class.
01:03:57And they would say, well, if the women don't like it, that's too bad.
01:04:01That's the way I learned grammar when I was a child back before the war.
01:04:05Some of these old-fashioned writers are the same people who complained about having women commentators at football games.
01:04:11The rule that most people follow nowadays is not to use the masculine pronoun, but the rule we've given you,
01:04:19to use his and her.
01:04:20That's considered more correct and polite, and it does recognize half of the human race appropriately.
01:04:25There is one problem with this construction.
01:04:28It can feel a little bit awkward.
01:04:31And if the same kind of construction occurs two or three times in a paragraph, it can feel especially awkward.
01:04:38If you find yourself writing a paragraph in which you are saying, his or her, his or her, he and
01:04:44she, over and over again,
01:04:46it begins to feel a little bit uncomfortable.
01:04:48You're throwing in so many extra words.
01:04:51Here's a tip for how to get out of that problem.
01:04:54For a more graceful sentence, try rewriting it in plural form.
01:04:59Here's the clever thing about the English language.
01:05:02As we've seen, in English, plural pronouns don't have gender.
01:05:07There is no masculine or feminine.
01:05:09You use they, them, and their, no matter whether you're dealing with male, female, or neuter antecedents.
01:05:17So if you make a sentence like this plural, you get beyond the gender issue altogether.
01:05:23So this sentence, everyone should bring his or her notebook to class, could be rewritten the following way.
01:05:29Students should bring their notebooks to class.
01:05:32Now we've used the plural pronoun, their, to refer back to the antecedent students.
01:05:39And their is neither masculine nor feminine.
01:05:42It includes males, females, what have you.
01:05:44And so this gets around the question of gender and makes for a shorter, more concise, and a little more
01:05:50graceful sentence.
01:05:52So if you find yourself writing a number of sentences with his or her, he or she, over and over
01:05:58again,
01:05:59and it is beginning to feel awkward, stop and look at the sentence and see whether you couldn't say the
01:06:04same thing using a plural structure instead.
01:06:07That's an easy way to get around the gender issue without offending half of the human race.
01:06:13And it's a clever trick that skilled writers often use.
01:06:18Now that you've learned a few basic tips about how to master pronoun and antecedent agreement,
01:06:24turn to your study guide and try the exercise, which will test those skills.
01:06:28When you're finished, come back to this program and we'll take a look at those questions together.
01:06:41Let's look at our first sentence.
01:06:43According to the police officer's testimony, someone was seen entering the bank just before the robbery,
01:06:48carrying a red pocketbook under her or their arm.
01:06:54All right, we have two pronouns to choose from here.
01:06:57One of them is singular and feminine, her.
01:07:00The other is plural, their.
01:07:02And of course, the plural pronoun doesn't have a gender because that's the way plural pronouns are in English.
01:07:07So we have to decide whether to choose a singular or a plural pronoun.
01:07:12Notice, by the way, that a feminine pronoun, her, has been given rather than a masculine pronoun, his.
01:07:19Why is that?
01:07:20Well, the person is described as carrying a red pocketbook.
01:07:23So I guess the assumption is that this person is a female because in our society,
01:07:28more females carry red pocketbooks than do men.
01:07:32So this appears to be a female that we're talking about.
01:07:35And that's why the feminine pronoun, her, has been used.
01:07:39Now, should a singular or a plural pronoun be used?
01:07:42What is the antecedent of the pronoun?
01:07:44That's always the rule in determining what the proper pronoun would be.
01:07:49What does the pronoun refer to?
01:07:51Earlier in this sentence, there is an antecedent.
01:07:54The antecedent is someone.
01:07:56It is someone who is carrying the red pocketbook under her or their arm.
01:08:01Now, someone is an indefinite pronoun.
01:08:03And if you remember our rule, indefinite pronouns ending in one and body are always singular.
01:08:10So someone is singular and therefore the singular pronoun, her, is correct rather than their.
01:08:17Notice, by the way, that some writers would incorrectly use the pronoun their in this sentence,
01:08:25a plural pronoun even though the antecedent is clearly singular, someone.
01:08:30Why do some writers use this?
01:08:32They use it as a way of getting around the gender issue, having to choose a masculine or a feminine
01:08:39pronoun.
01:08:40However, that's not an appropriate way to get around the gender issue by creating a mistake in terms of number.
01:08:47Someone is singular and therefore you have to use a singular pronoun.
01:08:51As we saw in the lesson, if you're uncertain of the gender that is being referred to,
01:08:58you can use his or her, he or she, him or her.
01:09:02That would be the correct way of dealing with the gender issue.
01:09:05It's not correct to switch over to a plural pronoun unless you recast the entire sentence to make the antecedent
01:09:12plural as well.
01:09:14If the antecedent is singular, you have to choose a singular pronoun in this case.
01:09:18And that's why her is correct.
01:09:21Next example.
01:09:23Both of the skydivers had brought his or their own parachutes and safety gear in preparation for tomorrow's jump.
01:09:32His or their are the two pronouns we have to choose from.
01:09:36Again, one is singular and one is plural.
01:09:38Which is correct?
01:09:40Well, to answer that, we need to decide what's the antecedent of the pronoun.
01:09:43And the antecedent is the pronoun both.
01:09:46Again, it's an indefinite pronoun.
01:09:48And if you recall your rules, you'll remember that both as a pronoun is always plural in meaning.
01:09:55Therefore, the second pronoun in this sentence should also be plural to match its antecedent.
01:10:00The correct word here is their, and the sentence should read,
01:10:04Both of the skydivers had brought their own parachutes and safety gear in preparation for tomorrow's jump.
01:10:10The sentence is plural all the way through.
01:10:13Next example.
01:10:14Anyone who wants to attend next Saturday's dance at the Rotary Club can pick up his or her or their
01:10:21ticket at the information booth on Vincey Street.
01:10:25Once again, we have a singular or plural issue.
01:10:28We've been offered two choices of pronouns.
01:10:31His or her, which is singular, or their, which is plural.
01:10:35Which is correct.
01:10:37You might be tempted to choose their because in a general way the meaning of the sentence seems to be
01:10:43referring to more than one person.
01:10:46People who want to go to the dance at the Rotary Club would probably be more than one person.
01:10:51We're probably, in a general way, talking about a group of people.
01:10:55So your inclination might be to say, well this is plural, and so the plural pronoun there is correct.
01:11:02But that's not how grammar works.
01:11:03Rather than going vaguely by the meaning of the sentence, you have to look for the actual antecedent.
01:11:09And the antecedent, that is the word to which the pronoun refers, is anyone.
01:11:14And remember our rule, those indefinite pronouns that end in body and one, are always grammatically singular.
01:11:22Even in sentences like this, where they seem to refer to more than one person, grammatically we treat them as
01:11:28singular,
01:11:29and therefore the pronoun referring back to them should also be singular.
01:11:33Therefore we choose the singular pronoun, his or her, in this case.
01:11:38We need to use his or her because the gender of the person picking up the ticket is not known.
01:11:43Could be male, could be female, so his or her is the correct way of handling this situation.
01:11:49Our next example.
01:11:51No one knows whether any of the churches or synagogues in town will provide space in its or their buildings
01:11:59for a homeless shelter.
01:12:01Okay, again we have a choice between singular and plural pronouns, which is correct?
01:12:06To answer that, once again we have to find the antecedent.
01:12:09Which word earlier in the sentence is being referred to by its or their?
01:12:14Is it churches? Is it synagogues?
01:12:17Well, not exactly. It's really any.
01:12:20No one knows whether any blah blah blah will provide space in its or their buildings for a homeless shelter.
01:12:27Once again we kind of ignore the prepositional phrase in determining what the antecedent is.
01:12:33So its or their, that pronoun refers back to any, the indefinite pronoun.
01:12:39So once again we have to ask, is any singular or plural?
01:12:44And any is one of those five Sanam pronouns, which may be either singular or plural depending on the context.
01:12:52And remember our, our rule.
01:12:56Look at the prepositional phrase that follows the Sanam pronoun to determine whether it's singular or plural in this particular
01:13:04case.
01:13:04Here, the Sanam pronoun any is followed by the prepositional phrase of the churches or synagogues in town.
01:13:13Churches, synagogues, both of those objects of the preposition of are plural.
01:13:19So the Sanam pronoun any is also plural in this particular context.
01:13:24So therefore the pronoun that refers back to any, later in the sentence, should also be plural.
01:13:29Their.
01:13:30The sentence should read, no one knows whether any of the churches or synagogues in town will provide space in
01:13:37their buildings for a homeless shelter.
01:13:40Next sentence.
01:13:42Either Nadia or her sister didn't finish her or their dinner.
01:13:47Once again, we have to choose either a singular or a plural pronoun.
01:13:51Notice that the singular pronoun, her, is feminine because Nadia and her sister are clearly both female.
01:13:58And so there's no question of his or her.
01:14:01We have to choose either her or their, depending on whether the antecedent is singular or plural.
01:14:07Once again, if you look at the sentence in a general way, you might be tempted to choose the plural
01:14:12pronoun
01:14:13because, after all, Nadia and her sister are both involved in the action here.
01:14:18But the correct answer is her because the real antecedent is the singular pronoun either.
01:14:25Remember that the indefinite pronoun either is one of the pronouns in the group that would always be considered singular.
01:14:32So since one or the other is being referred to by the singular indefinite pronoun either, the singular pronoun her
01:14:40is correct rather than the plural pronoun there.
01:14:49Well, so much for the art of agreement.
01:14:52Although people who are mastering English often make mistakes with subject-verb agreement and pronoun-antecedent agreement,
01:15:00I think you can see that actually agreement isn't very difficult to master.
01:15:04It's basically a matter of, first, learning some rules about what kinds of words are singular and what kinds of
01:15:12words are plural.
01:15:13And then, second, knowing where to look.
01:15:15It's a little bit like being an auto mechanic.
01:15:18Picking the correct spark plugs for a particular engine isn't that difficult.
01:15:22You just need to know where to look in the manual to find the specifications that will apply to a
01:15:27particular car.
01:15:28In the same way, once you learn how to look at the sentence and find the subject or find the
01:15:34antecedent,
01:15:35then picking the correct verb or pronoun isn't terribly difficult.
01:15:39Keep practicing these skills and I'm sure you'll find that they will come more and more naturally to you as
01:15:45time passes.
01:15:46Thanks for watching, and I look forward to speaking with you again on other programs in this grammar series.
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