Expanding Your
Knowledge
Making words ‘agree’
As well as the pronouns in the previous chapter there are
a number of other pronouns. Because some of these are
singular and some are plural, the verb is often incorrectly used
with singular pronouns. Look at the following examples:
Each of youhave been given a pencil.
Each of youhas been given a pencil.The second example is correct. ‘Each’ is asingularpronoun
and therefore ‘has’ should be used as it refers tooneperson
or thing. Look at the following examples:
She (one person)has a pencil. (singular)
They (several people)have been given pencils. (plural)Some other pronouns which are singular and should always
be followed by the singular form of the verbs are: everyone,
nobody, anything, something:
Everyonecomes to the match.2
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