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Section I Reasoning through Language Arts- Writing Skills
Section II Reasoning through Language Arts- Reading Skills
Section III Reasoning through Language Arts- The Essay
Section IV Social Studies
Section V Science
Section VI Mathematical Reasoning
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Subject and Verb Agreement

Every sentence must include a subject and a verb. The subject tells who or what, and the verb describes an action or condition. Subject and verb agree in number and person. Grammatically, the part of the sentence with the verb is called the predicate.


Roles of Subject and Verb


A complete sentence includes a subject and a verb. The verb is in the part of the sentence called the predicate. A predicate can be thought of as a verb phrase.

Simple Sentences

A sentence can be very simple, with just one or two words as subject and one or two words as predicate.

Sometimes, in a command, a subject is ā€œunderstood,ā€ rather than written or spoken.

BE CAREFUL!
Itā€™s is a contraction of it is.

Its (without an apostrophe) is the possessive of the pronoun it.

Be Careful!

Look at these examples of short sentences:

Sentence Subject Predicate, with main verb(s) underlined
I ate. I ate
They ran away. They ran away
Itā€™s OK. It is OK
Go and find the cat! (You) go and find the cat


Subject vs. Predicate


In addition to looking at subject vs. object in a sentence, we can also look at subject vs. predicate.

As we have seen, the subject is the noun or pronoun ā€˜doingā€™the action in the sentence. The complete subject includes that noun/pronoun plus its adjectives and describing words, while the simple subject is the noun/pronoun alone. The simple subject is usually one word, except in the case of multi-part nouns like ā€œice cream,ā€ ā€œRosa Parks,ā€ or ā€œDoctor Martinez.ā€

EXAMPLE: The exhausted, flu-ridden student is spending the whole day in bed.

Complete subject: The exhausted, flu-ridden student

Simple subject: student

*Note that the simple subject is ā€˜student,ā€™ not ā€˜the student.ā€™ The simple subject excludes articles like a/an/the or possessives like my/her/their, even if they are right next to the noun.

The predicate is the verb the subject is ā€˜doing.ā€™ The complete predicate includes the verbs and its modifiers (for example, adverbs or prepositional phrases). The simple predicate is just the verb or verb phrase (which can consist of multiple words in the case of phrases like ā€˜am sleepingā€™ or ā€˜getting upā€™).

EXAMPLE: The exhausted, flu-ridden student is spending the whole day in bed.

Complete predicate: is spending the whole day in bed

Simple predicate: is spending

In more complicated sentences, identifying the subject or predicate can be challenging. For example, what are the simple subject and simple predicate in the sentence below?

EXAMPLE: After his mom and dadā€™s anniversary dinner, Raj went to his neighborā€™s house.

There are many different nouns in the sentence, and multiple people (the mom, the dad, Raj, and the neighbor). But there is only one verbā€”wentā€” which is the simple predicate in this sentence. And the one ā€˜doingā€™ the verb is the subject: Raj. In this case, because there are no descriptive words attached to Raj, the subject and simple subject are the same.

What about the subject in the example below?

EXAMPLE: Clean your room.

Because this sentence is a command, we understand that the person is talking directly to someone ā€“ therefore, the subject is ā€œyou,ā€ even though we donā€™t see that word in the sentence!

In other sentences, we may see a compound subject, with two or more simple subjects connected by a conjunction like nor/or/and.

EXAMPLES:      The doctor and nurse worked together to help the patient.

                        Neither Canada nor Mexico has a queen.


More Complex Sentences


Sometimes a subject or predicate is a long phrase or clause.

Some sentences have more than one subject or predicate, or even a predicate within a predicate.

Sentence Subject(s) Predicate(s), with main verb(s) underlined
My friend from work had a bad car accident. My friend from work had a bad car accident
John, his sister, and I plan to ride our bikes across the country this summer. John, his sister, and I plan to ride our bikes across the country this summer
I did so much for them, and they didnā€™t even thank me.* I;
they
did so much for them;
didnā€™t even thank me
She wrote a letter that explained the problem.** She wrote a letter that explained the problem

*This sentence consists of two clauses, and each clause has its own subject and its own predicate.

**In this sentence, that explained the problem is part of the predicate. It is also a type of subordinate clause, called a relative clause, with its own subject and predicate.


Subject and Verb Agreement


Subjects and verbs must agree in number and person. This means that different subjects take different forms of a verb.

KEEP IN MIND . . .
The third person singular subject takes a different verb form than other subjects.

Keep in Mind...

With regular verbs, simply add -s to the singular third person verb, as shown below:

Singular Plural
Subject Verb Subject Verb
(first person)
(second person)
(third person)
I
you
he/she/it
play
play
plays
we
you
they
play
play
play

Some verbs are irregular, so simply adding -s doesnā€™t work. For example:

verb form for third person singular subject
have
do
fix
has
does
fixes

BE CAREFUL!
The verbs be, have, and do can be either main verbs or helping verbs.

Be Careful!

Look for subject-verb agreement in the following sentences:

  • I usually eat a banana for breakfast.
  • Marcy does well in school.
  • The cat licks its fur.

Subject-Verb Agreement for the Verb Be

Present Past
I am
you are
he/she/it is
we are
you are
they are
I was
you were
they were
we were
you were
they were

BE CAREFUL!
The verb be is very irregular. Its forms change with several subjects, in both present and past tense.

Be Careful!


Things to Look Out For


Subject-verb agreement can be tricky. Be careful of these situations:

  • Sentences with more than one subject: If two subjects are connected by and, the subject is plural. When two singular subjects are connected by neither/nor, the subject is singular.
    Sandra and Luiz shop. (plural)
    Neither Sandra nor Luiz has money. (singular)
  • Collective nouns: Sometimes a noun stands for a group of people or things. If the subject is one group, it is considered singular.
    Those students are still on chapter three. (plural)
    That class is still on chapter three. (singular)
  • There is and there are: With pronouns such as there, what, and where, the verb agrees with the noun or pronoun that follows it.
    Thereā€˜s a rabbit! (singular)
    Where are my shoes? (plural)
  • Indefinite pronouns: Subjects such as everybody, someone, and nobody are singular. Subjects such as all, none, and any can be either singular or plural.
    Everyone in the band plays well. (singular)
    All of the students are there. (plural)
    All is well. (singular)


Letā€™s Review!


  • Every sentence has a subject and a verb.
  • The predicate is the part of the sentence that contains the verb.
  • The simple subject is the noun/pronoun alone, while the complete subject includes its modifier(s).
  • The simple predicate is the verb OR verb phrase (ā€œis studying,ā€ ā€œhas picked upā€), while the complete predicate includes its modifier(s).
  • The subject and verb must agree in number and person.
  • The third person singular subject takes a different verb form.

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