Adhering to grammar rules, especially subject-verb agreement, is essential for writers and bloggers including those of us here on Hive Blockchain as it ensures that our writing is clear, accurate, and easy to understand. Subject-verb agreement makes sure that the meaning of a sentence is clear and doesn't leave the reader confused.
Furthermore, writers and bloggers who want to be taken seriously and want to be perceived as professionals should strive to produce error-free content. Writing that contains errors in grammar, punctuation, or spelling can detract from the credibility of the writer, and make it difficult for readers to take their arguments or ideas seriously. I have occasionally added one or more links to my blog to my CV during numerous job applications.
Moreover, as writers and bloggers are often communicating with an audience that may be diverse and international, it is even more important to be aware of grammar rules, as it will make their content more accessible to a wider range of readers.
While I am not an English teacher by profession, in my last job as a content curator in a home-grown educational technology company, proper use of English and strict adherence to correct English grammars was highly desired, and one big bone of contention was "Subject-verb agreement", I am by no means an expert in this, as I still struggle to adhere to the plenty rules, but I feel it will do public-good if I start covering common English grammar rules and basic English lecturers here on Hive. So, let's get started with the first one: Subject-Verb Agreement.
Meaning of "Subject-Verb Agreement"
Subject-verb agreement is an important grammatical rule in English that states that the subject and verb in a sentence must agree in number. In other words, if the subject is singular, the verb must be in its singular form, and if the subject is plural, the verb must be in its plural form.
To identify the subject and verb in a sentence, you need to know what each of them is and what they do.
Subject: The subject is the person, place, thing, or idea that the sentence is about. It is usually found at the beginning of the sentence and can be a noun (e.g. dog, John) or a pronoun (e.g. he, she).
Verb: The verb is the action or state of being that the subject is doing or being. It is usually found after the subject and can be a word like "run," "is," "were," etc.
Subject-Verb Agreement Rules
Example(s) are found below each of the rules and I've made the subjects bold and italicized the verbs
1. Singular subjects take singular verbs:
a: The dog barks loudly.
b: She plays the guitar every day.
2. Plural subjects take plural verbs:
a: The dogs bark loudly.
b: They play the guitar every day.
3. Compound subjects joined by "and" take a plural verb:
a: John and Jane are going to the store.
b: The teacher and the students are discussing the lesson.
4. When the subject of a sentence is a pronoun, it should agree in number with its antecedent:
a: She walks to the store every day.
b: They run every morning.
5. When the subject of a sentence is an indefinite pronoun, it is usually treated as singular:
a: Each of the students has to turn in their homework on time.
b: Every one of the books is interesting.
In addition to these basic rules, there are also some unconventional rules and tricky situations to watch out for when it comes to subject-verb agreement:
6: Collective nouns, such as "group" or "team," can take either a singular or plural verb, depending on the context of the sentence.
a: The group is discussing their next move.
b: The team are having a meeting.
7. When a phrase or clause comes between the subject and the verb, it can be easy to get confused about which form the verb should take.
a: One of the cats on the windowsill is sleeping.
Conclusion
These are not the whole set of rules governing subject-verb agreement in English language, but this covers a lot. Subject-verb agreement rules' maybe hard to implement in regular usage, but by being more conscious of our vocabularies, in writing and speaking, we could perfect our grammar.