18 English Grammar Demystifi ed
A woman in workout clothes walk into the gym.What is the verb? Walk is the verb. Who walks: Does the woman walk? Or do the
clothes walk? Of course, the woman walks. Woman is the singular subject. That fact
makes the original sentence incorrect. The following is the correct sentence:
A woman in workout clothes walks into the gym.When you are unsure if the verb should be singular or plural, use the following hint.
Forget about all other elements of the sentence and do this: fi nd the verb and then
ask yourself who or what does that.
Today, forward-thinking organizations in this country focuses on customer
service.Let’s think this through using the preceding hint. What is the verb? Focuses is the
singular verb. What focuses? Organizations is the plural subject. Do we have an
agreement issue? The answer is yes. The phrase in this country comes between the
subject and verb, and since the word country is singular, we fall into the agreement
trap.
In the next section of this book, you will learn much more about these preposi-
tional phrases. Until then, just remember to fi nd the verb fi rst and the subject will
fall into place.
Perfect Verb Tenses
You have been working with verbs in the present, the past, and the future tense. It’s
important to add one other verb formation to this list, and that is the perfect tense.
We’ll explore this even more later in the book, but for now, you should know that
the three perfect tenses (present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect) are formed
by adding has,had, or have to the past tense of the verb. Let’s concentrate on the
present perfect tense—a time that started in the past and continues into the present.
Look at the verb complain:
Icomplain. (present)Icomplained. (past)