who have been assigned to this project, feels honored to have been chosen to
work on this inquiry. Please feel free to ask us about any item that is unclear
to you.We look forward to working with you.Joe HidalgoDid you see the subject-verb agreement errors in the e-mail? They occurred in the
second and third sentences. Here are simple changes to correct the errors. Sentence
2 correction: Your patience and consideration... are very much appreciated.
The subject (patience and consideration) is plural. You cannot use the singular
is with a plural subject; you can use the plural form are. Sentence 3 correction:
Carlos, Mark, and I, who have been assigned to this project, feel... inquiry. The
subject (Carlos, Mark, and I) is plural. You cannot use the singular feels with a
plural subject. You can use the plural form feel.
DETERMINING AGREEMENT WITH PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES
When you speak or write a simple sentence, it’s easy to match the correct verb to the
subject:
A bully threatens the child.In the preceding sentence, the verb is clear: threatens. Who did the threatening?
The bully, or subject, did the threatening. A singular verb (threatens) agrees with a
singular subject (bully). What happens when you add prepositional phrases, or
interrupting words? The sentence becomes more complicated, and unless you are
very observant, agreement is easily lost.
A bully who is in the same classes threaten the child.A bully who is in the same classes threatens the child.Some writers would be fooled by the closest word to the verb, that is, classes.Classes
is plural, so the verb must be plural: threaten, right? No, you need to fi nd the sub-
ject. Is the word classes the subject? Do they threaten the child? No, it’s the bully
(singular subject) who threatens the child.
Find the subject and the verb in the following example. Does the verb agree with
the subject in number?
CHAPTER 1 Elements of the English Sentence^17