Grammar Smart 3rd Edition - Princeton Review 2014
A. Agreement
Part 3. Putting It All Together
Examples from the Masters:
A writer is like a bean plant—he has his little day, and then get stringy.
-E.B. White
The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes and hour, whatever her does, whoever he is.
-C.S. Lewis
Let’s do some analysis. In the first quote, writer is the singular subject, is is the singular verb. He is a singular pronoun, to match writer (it’s a little sexist, but more on that later.) Has and gets are singular verbs to match the singular pronoun. Everything is singular and everything matches.
In the second quote, future is the singular subject, matching the singular verb is. Everyone is singular, matching the singular verb reaches and the singular pronoun he. Does and is are also singular, to match he.
All of that analysis just explains why the sentences sound right—agreement doesn’t attract any attention unless it is wrong.
In the contest for Most Popular Error, agreement is probably the big winner. There are two kinds of agreement you need to watch out for: subject-verb agreement and pronoun agreement. We’ve mentioned each of these earlier in the sections on subjects, nouns, and pronouns, but let’s go into more detail about these agreements.
Subject-Verb Agreement
The Rule
Singular subjects take singular verbs, and plural subjects take plural verbs.
Four Easy Steps For Avoiding Subject-Verb Embarrassment
1. Find the main verb. Don’t be distracted by verbals, which are verb-like elements acting as another part of speech (infinitives, gerunds or participles as you read about in Part 2).
2. Ask yourself: Who or what is doing this action? The answer to this question will be the subject. The subject does not necessarily come before the verb, and there may be all kinds of distracting modifiers and prepositional phrases in between the subject and the verb. Do not lose heart. Bracketing such phrases so that you can see the subject more clearly may help.
3. Is the subject singular or plural? Most of the time, a plural subject will end in -s; there are plenty of exceptions. You may also have to consider the intended meaning of the word. (See Rules for Nouns.)
4. If your subject is singular, match it with the correct verb. If your subject is plural, match they with the correct verb. We promise you will be able to conjugate this correctly, by using your ear.
Quick Quiz #24
Subject-Verb Olympics
For the bronze, note the appropriate verb form.
1. Wearing a clown outfit, Bob (were sitting, was sitting) in a tire swing.
2. Bob, distracted by daydreams, (is, are) eating Doritos and licking his fingers.
3. Many of the causes of gaining weight (is, are) unknown to Bob.
4. The danger of eating too many chips (do, does) not worry him.
5. The dangers of eating too many chips (do, does) not worry him.
Rules For Subject-Verb Agreement
1. Subjects connected by and are plural: Bob and Dick are here.
2. Certain expressions (as well as, including, together with, with, etc. logically seem to change a singular subject to plural. They don’t These expressions will be set off from the subject by commas.
Bob, along with Dick and Harry, is going on vacation.
Dick, as well as Bob, plans to vacation in his living room.
3. Singular subjects connected by conjunctions such as either-or, neither-nor, or, and nor stay singular.
Neither Bob nor Harry is able to get up from the Barcalounger.
4. If a singular and plural subject are connected by either-or, neither-nor, or, or nor the verb should agree with the subject closest to it.
Neither Bob nor the others were able to get up from the Barcalounger.
Neither the others nor Bob was able to get up from the Barcalounger.
Quick Quiz #25
Subject-Verb Olympics
For the silver, note the appropriate verb form:
1. To the naked eye, Bob and Harry (look, looks) too fat to get up from the Barcalounger.
2. Dick, together with Harry, (is yearning, are yearning) for some ice cream.
3. Either Bob or Dick (want, wants) nuts and fudge to go with the ice cream.
4. Neither the boys nor Bob (desire, desires) green vegetables.
5. Neither Bob nor the boys (desire, desires) green vegetables.
Even More Rules For Subject-Verb Agreement
1. There is never the subject of a sentence. Look for the subject to follow the verb: There are many reasons to sit in a tire swing.
2. Be careful with relative pronouns who, which, and that. Look to see which non the relative pronoun is standing in for, and make your verb appropriately singular or plural to match it.
Ladies who lunch on Tuesdays eat vichyssoise.
A lady who lunches on Tuesday eats vichyssoise.
Bob is one of the men who eat tortilla chips before dinner.
Bob is one man who eats tortilla chips before dinner.
Note that Ladies is the subject of eat; Bob is the subject of is. The italicized noun is the antecedent for who, showing whether who should be considered singular or plural. More examples of this tricky rule are on the next page.
A hammer is one of the tools that are indispensable.
At the hardware store, Bob looked at rakes that were on sale.
This rake is the only one of all these tools that is made by Acme Tools.
Again, note that the italicized noun is not the subject of the italicized verb; the subject of the italicized verb is the relative pronoun that. The italicized noun is the noun that that stands for. At issue here is the meaning of the sentence—if, in the last example, the writer intends to say that out of all the tools, the rake is the only tool made by Acme, then the subject-verb agreement is correct as it stands. If the writer means that all of the tools are made by Acme, then the subject-verb agreement (and the sentence as a whole) makes no sense. Be clear about what you want say, and use subject-verb agreement to say what you mean.
3. Collective nouns such as family, committee, jury, crowd, and group are almost always singular. (See Rules for Nouns.)
4. Numbers that represent a single unit are singular.
A million dollars is a lot of money to keep under your mattress.
Fifty percent is a big commission.
Ten years is a long time to be without work.
Quick Quiz #26
Subject-Verb Olympics
Go for the gold! Pick the appropriate verb.
1. Each of the men (are, is) nearly buried in a mountain of tortilla chips wrappers.
2. Dick’s family (is, are) wondering whether there (are, is) anything that they can do, short of renting a forklift, that will get Dick out of his Barcalounger.
3. Harry is one of the men who (is, are) refusing to wear anything but bathrobes.
4. Everyone who (comes, come) to visit (see, sees) that the chips (have, has) been eaten by Dick and Bob.
5. Every one of the ice cream flavors (has, have) been sampled by Bob; the newly formed Committee for the Promotion of Junk Food (has, have) named Bob its honorary chairman.
Pronoun Agreement
This is not as complicated as subject-verb agreement; once you know the rule, it’s just a
matter of not being sloppy.
The Rule
Use a singular pronoun with a singular antecedent; use a plural pronoun with a plural antecedent.
Remember that the antecedent is the word a pronoun stands in for in a sentence—the noun the pronoun is referring to. If the antecedent is singular, the pronoun should be singular; if the antecedent is plural, the pronoun should be plural.
Bob and Harry are eating their tortilla chips.
Neither Bob nor Harry is eating his tortilla chips.
Each of the men is eating his tortilla chips.
Everyone should eat his pizza.
Everyone should eat her pizza.
Not: Everyone should eat their pizza.
Sometimes the application of this rule can get you into an awkward spot.
When a man or a woman falls in love, he becomes absent-minded.
What about the woman? The pronoun should logically include her as well, which is why some writer might fall for:
Sloppy: When a man or woman falls in love, they become absent-minded.
Overly politically correct: When a man or woman falls in love, he or she becomes absentminded.
It’s far better to rewrite as the following:
When men and women fall in love, they become absent-minded.
Now we’re consistently plural. Remember: If sticking to a rule leaves you with an awkward sentence, rewrite! Keep in mind the Golden Rule of Grammar.
The Golden Rule
Avoid trouble.
Last Words On Pronoun Agreement
1. Be consistent in your use of pronouns. Do this:
You must pick up your ticket before taking your seat.
Not: One must pick up one’s ticket before taking your seat.
This inconsistency most often comes up with one and you. Be careful to maintain consistency, or it will look like you suffered memory loss between starting your sentence and ending it.
2. Nouns connected to singular pronouns should also be singular; nouns connected to plural pronouns should be plural. For example:
Each of the men asked for a raise.
Not: Each of the men asked for raises.
All of the men wore dresses.
Not: All of the men wore a dress.
See the confusion stirred up by the violation of this rule? In the latter example, the second version says that all of the men were wearing the same dress. All at the same time? Again, one of the best reasons for understanding the rules of grammar is that you can avoid giving your sentences unintended meanings.
3. Make sure that the noun your pronoun refers to is obvious.
Ralphie and Marky fell down, and he broke his leg.
Who broke his leg? We aren’t sure. This is an obvious example; in a more complicated sentence either the reader will be confused (never a good thing) or she will make an arbitrary decision about what the pronoun refers to (not good either). Check pronouns to see if their antecedents are clear.
Another kind of ambiguity crops up most often in the use of pointing (or demonstrative) pronouns.
Liberty has been defined as freedom limited by whatever causes harm to others, and this is how a person tries to live a moral life.
You more or less understand the writer’s point—but what, exactly, does this refer to? Liberty? Limited freedom? The intended antecedent is living freely without causing harm to others, but since that phrase is not in the sentence, the reader is left with the job of assigning an antecedent to the pronoun. Watch out for this, that, these, and those. Don’t ask the reader to do work that you should be doing.
Quick Quiz #27
Pronoun Agreement
Correct the pronoun agreement in the following sentences. Not every sentence has an error.
1. In an election year, many of the candidates abandon their usual causes and talk instead about any issue he thinks will get him elected.
2. Unfortunately, a campaign manager will do virtually anything, legal or not, to ensure their candidate’s reelection.
3. Each of the voters makes their own decisions.
4. Everyone in the campaign office has, at one time or another, offered a suggestion for an advertisement that would severely damage the opposing candidate’s credibility, but each person has since retracted their suggestion, fearing that such an advertisement would invite attacks on their own candidate’s credibility.
5. It is a fact of politics that our votes are based, finally, on the most subjective measures, and that a politician’s hairstyle may hurt his chances more than his positions on policy or even his voting record.
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