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If you can get in the habit of crossing out all prep phrases you won’t ever be tricked by SVA again. Why?
Because, the subject of the verb will not be inside the prep phrase!
The subject of the sentence can NEVER be the object of the preposition.
Let’s identify our parts of speech in the following sentence.
Sally gave the gift to me.
What is the subject? Sally (The subject is usually the person or thing that is performing the action.)
What is the verb? gave (It is the action that the subject (Sally) is doing.)
What is the Direct Object? the gift (The direct object is the primary object affected by the transitive verb that
comes before it.)
What is the Indirect Object? me (The indirect object is the person for whom the verb is performed. Me is
the indirect object that is receiving the gift. Me is the object of the preposition to.)
Let’s see how this works with the singular pronouns mentioned:
Neither of the two teachers enjoys attending conferences on the weekend.
Let’s eliminate the prep phrases “of the two teachers” and “on the weekend,” because we don’t want to get
tricked and identify the wrong subject.
Neither of the two teachers enjoys attending conferences on the weekend.
What is the verb? enjoys attending
What is the subject? neither (I know it’s tempting to pick “teachers” as the subject, but it is inside
the prep phrase and so cannot be the subject.)
Now we have to check to see if the subject and verb match. Neither is singular and enjoys (with an “s” on the
end) is also singular, so the sentence is correct as is.
Each of the cheerleaders get a set of pom poms for free.
Let’s eliminate the prep phrases “of the cheerleaders,” “of pom poms,” and “for free.”
Each of the cheerleaders get a set of pom poms for free.
What is the verb? get
What is the subject? each
Do the subject and verb match? Nope. “Each” is singular and “get” is plural so we need to turn “get” into “gets.”
Each of the cheerleaders gets a set of pom poms for free.