Grammar: Advanced Subject-Verb Agreement Practice #2 (With Prepositional Phrases)

Advanced Subject-Verb Agreement Practice #2

(With Prepositional Phrases)

PRACTICE:     Put parenthesis around the Prepositional Phrases if there are any.  

Circle the subject. Draw two lines under the verb.

Mark SV Errors if there are any. Or mark it “Correct.”

Make corrections.

1. The pen and the paper is on the desk.
2. The box of chocolates are on the shelf.
3.  Every one of the students have practised very hard.
4. The skill of understanding personal communications is crucial to good business.
5. Not many people know the truth about the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

6. The number of people who are mobile phone owners rise every year.

7. Some people believe that learning a new languages wastes time.

8. A great many success stories are due to hard work.

9. The comedy team of Abbott and Costello were world famous.
10. One of us know the answer.

Grammar: Advanced Subject-Verb Agreement Practice (With Prepositional Phrases)

Advanced Subject-Verb Agreement Practice (With Prepositional Phrases)

• Often, the subject of a sentence is followed directly by the verb.
• For instance: The dog barks all night.
• However, sometimes a prepositional phrase is between the subject and the verb.
• For this practice, look carefully for the subject and ignore the words that are part of prepositional phrases.

The character in The Arabian Nights is a woman named Scheherazade.

                      subject                                            verb

PRACTICE:     Circle the subject.

Underline the verb that “agrees” or matches the subject.

1. Marvin’s excuses for not having completed his research paper (bore, bores) me.

2. Speeding in restricted zones, especially those near schools, (endanger, endangers) lives.

3. One computer for two or three students (seem, seems) inadequate.

4. The popularity of violent movies (reflect, reflects) the values of our society.

5. Honeydews, one of the favorite melons of consumers, (taste, tastes) clean and sweet.

6. Coaches who are disciplined and who demand discipline from their players usually

(have, has) winning teams.

7. The annual sales of video games in the U.S.  probably (exceed, exceeds) a billion dollars.

8. Small amounts of tar and nicotine (damage, damages) the health of smokers.

9. The women riding in the back seat of the car (was, were) not injured in the accident.

10. Animals which sleep in the day and are active at night (have, has) good night vision.

11. The students waiting in line for tickets to the concert (expect, expects) good seats.

12. A teenager who tries to conform to the expectations of adults (is, are) often ridiculed

by his or her peers.

13. The bark of some trees (have, has) been used to treat certain diseases.
                                                                                   

Adapted from http://faculty.mccneb.edu/mbklocke

Grammar- More Focus: Identifying Prepositional Phrases

More Focus: Identifying Prepositional Phrases

PRACTICE:     Put parenthesis around the Prepositional Phrases.  

Circle the subject. Draw two lines under the verb.

1.  Ramona loves writing texts to her friends.
2. Many students have complained about the new rules.
3. The pot of vegetable soup simmered gently on the stove.
4. My phone takes very clear photographs in all kinds of weather.
5. The concert was canceled with only one day’s notice.
6. The coffee was leaking from my cup onto the carpet.
7. The kitchen in my grandmother’s house smells like vanilla and spices.
8.  The meeting took place during lunch.
9. We ate our dinner in the car.
10. The book of quotes inspired me.
11. The best things in life are free.
12.  The tunnel through the mountain took three years to make.
13.  Our protest against censorship was successful.
14.  One of the most important ideas in the article is that multiasking is harmful.
15.   This reminds me of something.
16.  The best place to eat around here is Sam’s Restaurant.

Grammar- Writing Mechanics: The Sentence

WRITING MECHANICS:  The Sentence

                                                           

                                                 

BASIC PARTS OF A SENTENCE:

            A sentence needs to meet 5 basic requirement.

1.      Begin with a capital letter

2.      Have a subject

3.      Have a verb

4.      Express a complete thought

5.      End with terminal punctuation (period, question mark, or exclamation point)

SUBJECTS

            The subject is the topic of the sentence, who or what the sentence is about.  The subject will always be a noun—person, place, thing, or idea.

What is the subject of this sentence?

The President signed the bill.

VERBS

            The verb is the action of the sentence, what is happening in the sentence or what the subject is doing. 

What is the verb in the sentence                                                                     ?

The President signed the bill.

                                               

EXPRESS A COMPLETE THOUGHT

            In some cases a subject and verb alone make a sentence complete.  Sometimes, though, a sentence needs more to make sense. 

One extra thing it might need is an object. 

            There are three kinds of objects: direct object, indirect object, and the object of a preposition.  A direct object is the object that receives the action of the verb.  An indirect object receives the direct object.  The object of a preposition follows a preposition.

In our sentence

The President signed the bill.

‘President’ is the subject because the sentence tells us something about the President, what s/he did.

‘Signed’ is the verb because it is the action the President performed.

Bill is what the president signed, so it received the action of the verb.  It is a direct object.

Now let’s look at the sentence

I gave him the book on the table.

Who or what is the sentence about? 

The sentence is about me so ‘I’ is the subject.

What did I do?

I gave something to someone.  ‘Gave’ is the verb.

What did I give?

I gave a book so “the book” is the direct object.

I gave the book to ‘him’ so  ‘him’ is the indirect object, receiving the direct object.

Practice: For each sentence, identify the subject, verb, direct object, and indirect object.

Max asked Sally a question about the dance.

I have told him the answer several times.

The students ate their lunch in silence.

I saw Alice in the hallway during the class change.

Jim failed English last semester.

TV audiences love reality programs.

Mr. Shelley has inspired many students over the years.

The policeman was shouting directions at the motorists.

Amy had a book from the library in her locker.

I forgot the answer to the question.

Max brought Sally a corsage.

The boy sent the girl flowers.

Mrs. Webb serves her family a hearty breakfast.

A woman in the waiting room asked the man a question.

The teacher sent Alice a note.

The prophet told the audience the future.

He offered me money.

The audience offered the cast thunderous applause.

He sent his girlfriend flowers.

The grocer sold mother some lettuce.

There is a third object known as the object of the preposition. Prepositions are essentially connection words. They bridge words to other words, usually to position the word in time, space, direction, or relationship. The preposition and its object make up a prepositional phrase. The following is a list of prepositions:

The following words are the most commonly used prepositions:

about	below	excepting	off	toward
above	beneath	for	on	under
across	beside(s)	from	onto	underneath
after	between	in	out	until
against	beyond	in front of	outside	up
along	but	inside	over	upon
among	by	in spite of	past	up to
around	concerning	instead of	regarding	with
at	despite	into	since	within
because of	down	like	through	without
before	during	near	throughout	with regard to
behind	except	of	to	with respect to

                                     

Try to locate all the prepositions in the previous practice and identify the object of the preposition.

Grammar: Subject-Verb Agreement

BASIC RULE OF SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT IS: “THE S RULE”:
If subject is singular, verb ends in S.
If subject is plural, verb does NOT end in S.
The employee think/thinks the manager is unreasonable.
The employees think/thinks the manager is unreasonable.
The man want/wants to go now.
The men want/wants to go now.
Note: Remember The S Rule with doesn’t and don’t (and isn’t and aren’t)
He doesn’t want to go (not: he don’t want to go!)

COMPOUND SUBJECTS

AND: the subject is plural.

Example: Anna and I walk the dog.

OR and NOR: singular or plural, depending on whether the subject closest to the
verb is singular or plural.

Examples: Anna or Shirley walks the dog.
The twins or Anna walks the dog.
Anna or the twins walk the dog

DON’T BE CONFUSED BY PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES!
Prepositional phrases are clauses in the sentence that start with a preposition (OF,
IN, ON, ABOVE, ETC.) and ends with a noun (or pronoun). They NEVER
contain the subject! DISREGARD them when deciding verb agreement!

Example: The vase of flowers is on the table.

Vase is the subject and it is singular!!! Ignore the words “of flowers”

AND DON’T BE CONFUSED BY “INTERRUPTERS” :
As well as
In addition to
Along with
Together with
Besides
NOTE: these words will be surrounded by commas.

Example: Evan, as well as his mom, is home.

RULE: IGNORE interrupters when deciding verb agreement; they are NOT part of the
subject.

Example: Bill, along with three other guys, lives in that apartment.
(Bill is the subject, and it is singular)

SPECIAL CASES:

(1) EACH, EITHER, NEITHER: always singular

Examples: Each of the children has a cupcake.
Neither room has been cleaned.
Either is fine.

(2) ALL, SOME, NONE, MOST, ANY: singular or plural depending on
what it refers to

Example 1: All of the snow is melted. All is singular here because
it refers to the snow
Example 2: All of the kids eat ice-cream. Now all is plural because
it refers to the kids.

NOTE: This is an exception to the rule that you ignore the
prepositional phrases! Here, you must look at the prepositional
phrase to know what the subject “ALL” refers to.

Practice:
Directions- Identify and correct the 10 Subject-Verb Agreement errors in the following paragraph.

In her article, ‘Lower the Drinking Age for Everyone,’ Michelle Minton argue that the US should allow 18 year olds to buy and consume alcohol. She point out the inconsistency that although 18 year olds are considered legally adults, when it comes to alcohol they doesn’t have the same rights as older people. Minton also claims that a high drinking age do not prevent alcohol-related problems. America have a worse rate of alcoholism in young people than Europe, even though nearly all European countries has a lower drinking age. She thinks this is because making alcohol illegal for college-aged people force them to drink on the sneak, which is more dangerous. To me, the most interesting idea presented in the article is that a high drinking age doesn’t simply do no good, it actually make things worse. I think this is true, because banning alcohol do not stop people from drinking. It only changes the way that they drinks.

Grammar: Sentence Completion

We remember what makes a complete sentence, right?

1. It begins with a capital letter.
2. It has a subject.
3. It has a verb.
4. It expresses a complete thought.
5. It ends with a period.

If you have more than one subject-verb pairing in the sentence, you have more than one sentence in the sentence.  That's generally fine so long as they are properly combined.

To combine two sentences, you need a comma (,) and a conjunction (and/but/or/yet/so/for/nor).

Two sentences also go into one if one of the two has a dependent word.  The dependent word makes the sentence NEED another sentence to complete it.  Some examples of dependent words are:

Dependent Words

after                         if                                  since                           where        although                  even if                         that                             whether          as long as                  even though               though                        as soon as      because                     in case                        unless                         while before                       just as                         until                            whenever once                       now that                     when                           wherever

So with this quick review, let's try some practice.

Identify is the sentence below is a complete sentence.  Write S if it is, RO if it is a run-on, and F if it is a fragment.  Bonus: Fix the run-ons and fragments.

_____ l. More powerful than a locomotive.

_____ 2. When it's your turn.

_____ 3. The firefighter yelled down the well.

_____ 4. That referee.

_____ 5. The spider fell down the back of his shirt, he screamed.

_____ 6. If you like blueberry pancakes.

_____ 7. Who is standing on the desk?

_____ 8. The man who is standing on the desk is a great teacher, all the students love him.

_____ 9. Under the boardwalk, down by the sea.

_____ 10. My big brother likes motorcycles, my little brother likes lollipops.

_____ 11. The man who came to dinner.

_____ 12. Whispered sweet nothings.

_____ 13. Mother's Day and Halloween.

_____ 14. You are my favorite person.

_____ 15. I don't know the smallest planet, I know the largest.

_____ 16. Sweet Georgia Brown.

_____ 17. The man down on his luck tripped over the pot of gold.

_____ 18. Bandits steal on land, pirates steal at sea.

_____ 19. Before you go.

_____ 20. Destroyed the kitchen.

Grammar: Identifying Subjects and Verbs

Basics about Subjects

• Every sentence must have a subject.
• The subject of a sentence is “who” or “what” does the action.
• The subject is always a noun (person, place, thing or idea).
• To find the subject in a sentence, ask yourself: Who or what is doing the action in this sentence?

Gloria writes the answers on the board.

In this sentence, who is doing the action? Gloria is the subject because is doing the action.

The subject could also be a pronoun, such as, she, he, I, we.

She writes the answers on the board.

PRACTICE: Circle the subject in the following sentences:

1. The people applauded.
2. This book inspires me.
3. At noon my journey began.
4. My aunt Judy was a math teacher.
5. He knows how to fly a plane.
6. This semester, I’m working hard.
7. In case of fire, you should run to the nearest exit.
8. This thing is broken.
9. Where are my keys?
10. The door won’t open.

Basics about Verbs

• Every sentence must have a verb.
• Verbs express the action of the sentence.  
• Verbs say what the subject is doing.
• To find the verb in a sentence, ask yourself: What is the subject doing in this sentence? What is the main action of this sentence?

Gloria writes the answers on the board.

What is the subject doing in this sentence?

The subject is Gloria. What is she doing? Writing.
“Writes” is the verb in this sentence.

What is the main action in the sentence?

The main action is “writes.”
“Writes” is the verb in this sentence.

High Action Verbs

Some verbs have a lot of action, like jump, shout, catch, write, climb.  Add a few more HIGH ACTION VERBS:

Low Action Verbs

Some verbs do not show a lot of action, like is, are, were, has, have, had, believe, think. Add a few more LOW-ACTION VERBS:

PRACTICE: Turn to the Practice on the previous page.

You have already identified the subject.

Draw two lines under the verbs in each sentence.

Identifying Subjects and Verbs

PRACTICE: Circle the subject and draw two lines under the verbs in these sentences:

1. My aunt Judy was a math teacher.
2. I have a piece of gum in my pocket.
3. In the trunk of their car, they had a suitcase full of money.
4. In the summer, she’s always at the beach.
5. The article reports an increasing rate of citizens who vote in the national elections.
   
6. She looked like she had been up all night.
7. Puppies will chew anything: old shoes, dirty socks, glossy magazines.
8. During my sister’s graduation, we all sat outside in the miserable heat.
9. On my birthday, my boss and co-workers made a point of being nice.
10. During the civil war, women disguised themselves as men and went to battle.        
11. The laces on these shoes never stay tied.
12. Exercise reduces stress.
13. At night, my cat sleeps under my bed.
14. Hoping to find a good restaurant, we walked in circles for hours.
15. In the article, the author states that laughing is good for our health.
16. Many people believe they are leaders, not followers.