English 4 Using Clear and Coherent Sentences Employing Grammatical Structures Second Quarter - Week 2

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

English 4 Using Clear and Coherent Sentences Employing Grammatical Structures Second Quarter - Week 2 Department of Education English 4 Using Clear and Coherent Sentences employing Grammatical Structures Second Quarter - Week 2 Adelinda D. Dollesin Writer Hilario G. Canasa Dr. Ma. Myra E. Namit Validators Ivy M. Romano Ada T. Tagle Cecilia Theresa C. Claudel Dr. Ma. Theresa C. Dela Rosa Dr. Ma. Carmen D. Solayao Dr. Shella C. Navarro Quality Assurance Team Schools Division Office – Muntinlupa City Student Center for Life Skills Bldg., Centennial Ave., Brgy. Tunasan, Muntinlupa City (02) 8805-9935 / (02) 8805-9940 1 This module was designed to help you master the use of clear and coherent sentences employing appropriate grammatical structures (Kinds of Nouns: Count and Mass, Possessive and Collective Nouns) After going through this module, you are expected to: 1. Define and identify the kinds of nouns: mass and count nouns, possessive and collective nouns; and 2. Classify and use kinds of nouns (mass and count nouns, possessive and collective nouns) in simple sentence. A. Directions: Encircle the letter of the correct answer. 1. Linda will buy juice and chicken from the store. Which of the following words is a mass noun? A. chicken C. Linda B. juice D. store 2. Nena will use the long spoon for halo-halo. Which of the following is a count noun? A. Long C. use B. spoon D. will 3. They put sugar in the jar. What is the count noun in the sentence? A. jar C. sugar B. put D. they 4. Hera added rice in a bowl. Which is the mass noun in the sentence? A. bowl C. Hera B. can D. rice 2 For (5 - 7) Which of the following words is a collective noun? 5. A. beans C. fruit berry B. lion’s den D. flocks of birds 6. A. cooked rice C. yummy salad B. fish sauce D. colony of ants 7. A. crabs in the river C. water in the glass B. hungry boys D. school of fish For (8-10) What is the possessive form of the underlined phrases in each sentence? 8. The bag of the lady is red. A. bag’s lady C. ladys’ bag B. lady’s bag D. the lady bag 9. The back of the old man is painful. A. backs’ old man C. the old’s man B. back’s man old D. old man’s back 10. The tail of the rat is long. A. rats tail C. the rat tail B. rat’s tail D. the tail of the rat Directions: Number the sentences (1-4) in the preparation of a sand- wich. Nida made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. _______ Finally, she ate it. _______ Next, she spread jelly on another slice of bread. _______ After spreading the jelly, she put the two slices of bread together. _______ First, she spread peanut butter on one slice of bread. 3 Kinds of Nouns 1. Count nouns refer to nouns that can be counted. Examples: flowers, tables, houses, bottles 2. Mass nouns refer to nouns that cannot be counted. Examples: sugar, rice, hair, flour 3. Possessive Nouns express ownership or possession. To make most singular nouns show possession, add an apostrophe and s.(‘s) Examples: toy of the child – child’s toy book of the doctor– doctor’s book However, for singular nouns that end with –s, add an apostrophe after -s to show possession. (s’) Examples: bag of Miss Roxas – Miss Roxas’ bag car of Mr. Reyes - Mr. Reyes’ car bike of Charles – Charles’ bike For plural nouns that end in –s, add an apostrophe after the s to show possession. (s’) Examples: bags of girls – girls’ bags books of the boys – boys’ books books of teachers – teachers’ books For a plural noun that does not end in s – add (’s ) Examples: clothes of children – children’s clothes shoes of men – men’s shoes 4 4. Collective nouns refer to a group or a whole unit of persons, animals, places or objects. Examples of Collective Nouns a colony of ants a flock of birds a set of dishes a bed of oysters a troop of scouts a battalion of soldiers a swarm of bees a bouquet of roses a fleet of ships a galaxy of stars a group of islands a school of fish Activity 1 Directions: Read the paragraph and answer the questions on the next page. Use a separate sheet of paper. Adeline helped her mother baked their favorite cake. First, they prepared the baking tin, spoon, bowl, and other utensils. Then, they gathered all the ingredients for the cake like flour, sugar, butter, milk, chocolates and some eggs. After everything was ready, they mixed all the ingredients in the bowl. Next, mother poured the mix- ture in the baking tin. Then, she placed it inside a preheated oven. After an hour, the cake was ready. Adeline added some icing and 5 fruits on top of the cake. Everybody enjoyed Adeline’s special chocolate cake. 1. What did Adeline and her mother bake? 2. What did they prepare before baking the cake? 3. What ingredients were used to bake the cake? 4. What did Adeline add on top of the cake? 5. Why do you think everybody enjoyed the cake? 6. Which nouns can be counted? Which nouns cannot be counted? 7. Whose cake was enjoyed by everybody? Activity 2 Directions: Your mother sent you to the grocery store. Prepare a list of things you are going to buy. Grocery List ___________ _____________ ___________ _____________ ___________ _____________ ___________ _____________ ___________ _____________ ___________ _____________ Activity 3 Directions: Match the community helpers with their possessions. Write the correct form. The first one is done for you. camp police officer police officer’s whistle pen writer _____________________ 6 net fisher-folk _____________________ handkerchief Boy Scouts _____________________ truck firefighter _____________________ license driver _____________________ hose gardener ______________________ pen teacher ______________________ cart vendors _____________________ Activity 4 Directions: Encircle the letter of the sentence with a collective noun. 1. A. Mother served us fruit juice and oatmeal. B. A crowd of children and adults watched the street dancing. C. Grandmother’s gems are expensive. 2. A. The pupils were amazed at the performance of the orchestra. B. The secretary is responsible for writing the minutes of the meeting. C. The tourists love to visit Hundred Islands in Pangasinan. 3. A. Summer vacation is fun for some. B. I love watching movies, collecting old coins and traveling to provinces. C. A battalion of soldiers marched to the gate. 4. A. Jet, John and Jorrel like watching Gilas Pilipinas basketball team play. B. Teachers aim the best for their pupils. C. As Athena hears the bell ringing, she enters the room immediately. 7 5. A. At last I found my diamond ring. B. Arianne reviewed her lessons last night. C. Mike taught music in our class last Friday. Directions: Fill in the blanks with the correct words: _________________ are nouns which can be counted. _____________ are nouns which cannot be counted. ___________ express ownership or possession. ____________ refer to a group or a whole unit of persons, animals, places or objects. Activity 1 Lola Hera is busy preparing Linda’s favorite treats. She has just finished baking the rice cakes. Lola Hera’s rice cakes have a sprinkling of coconut shreds. They have slices of cheese on them. Then, she cooked a pot of champorado. While cooking champo- rado, she took out from the oven the ensaymada that she also baked. She spread a teaspoon of butter and sprinkled a spoonful of sugar on the ensaymada. Lola Hera had the best halo-halo. She mixed all sorts of things in her glasses of halo-halo. She put slices of nata de coco, spoon- ful of ube jam and slices of leche flan. Then, she added a half cup of milk and shaved ice. The halo-halo looked delightful with its swirl of color. Name the ingredients of Lola Hera’s halo-halo. Classify them as count nouns and mass nouns. Count Nouns Mass Nouns 8 Activity 2 Directions: Change the underlined phrase to show ownership or possession. 1. The bike of Nathan was bought by his uncle. _________________ 2. The doll of my niece was a gift from her mother. ______________ 3. The dog of my cousin got lost yesterday. ______________________ 4. The toy house of the twins looks exciting. _____________________ 5. The car of Jet is new. ___________________________ Activity 3 Directions: Use the collective nouns in the box to complete the paragraph below. audience crowd group band troupe A big _______ of people was in the open theater in Rizal Park. They were watching a musical performance. Everyone in the __________ was so quiet as the __________ of musicians played a lilting number. This was followed by some songs sung by a ____________ of singers. The dance __________ presented some folk dances. All the numbers were well ap- plauded. The people enjoyed the show. Directions: Encircle the letter of the best answer. 1. There are sands on the floor. Which is the mass noun in the sen- tence? A. are C. sands B. floor D. there 2. Pieces of marbles are scattered outside. Which is the count noun in the sentence? A. marbles C. pieces B. scattered D. outside 3. Water falls in Pagsanjan is so invigorating. Which is the mass noun? A. invigorating C. so B. Pagsanjan D. water 9 4. White sand beach in Boracay is a nice place to visit. Which is the mass noun in the sentence? A. beach C. place B. Boracay D. sand Fill in the blank with the appropriate collective noun. A. rank B. tribe C.
Recommended publications
  • Animacy and Alienability: a Reconsideration of English
    Running head: ANIMACY AND ALIENABILITY 1 Animacy and Alienability A Reconsideration of English Possession Jaimee Jones A Senior Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation in the Honors Program Liberty University Spring 2016 ANIMACY AND ALIENABILITY 2 Acceptance of Senior Honors Thesis This Senior Honors Thesis is accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation from the Honors Program of Liberty University. ______________________________ Jaeshil Kim, Ph.D. Thesis Chair ______________________________ Paul Müller, Ph.D. Committee Member ______________________________ Jeffrey Ritchey, Ph.D. Committee Member ______________________________ Brenda Ayres, Ph.D. Honors Director ______________________________ Date ANIMACY AND ALIENABILITY 3 Abstract Current scholarship on English possessive constructions, the s-genitive and the of- construction, largely ignores the possessive relationships inherent in certain English compound nouns. Scholars agree that, in general, an animate possessor predicts the s- genitive while an inanimate possessor predicts the of-construction. However, the current literature rarely discusses noun compounds, such as the table leg, which also express possessive relationships. However, pragmatically and syntactically, a compound cannot be considered as a true possessive construction. Thus, this paper will examine why some compounds still display possessive semantics epiphenomenally. The noun compounds that imply possession seem to exhibit relationships prototypical of inalienable possession such as body part, part whole, and spatial relationships. Additionally, the juxtaposition of the possessor and possessum in the compound construction is reminiscent of inalienable possession in other languages. Therefore, this paper proposes that inalienability, a phenomenon not thought to be relevant in English, actually imbues noun compounds whose components exhibit an inalienable relationship with possessive semantics.
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding English Non-Count Nouns and Indefinite Articles
    Understanding English non-count nouns and indefinite articles Takehiro Tsuchida Digital Hollywood University December 20, 2010 Introduction English nouns are said to be categorised into several groups according to certain criteria. Among such classifications is the division of count nouns and non-count nouns. While count nouns have such features as plural forms and ability to take the indefinite article a/an, non-count nouns are generally considered to be simply the opposite. The actual usage of nouns is, however, not so straightforward. Nouns which are usually regarded as uncountable sometimes take the indefinite article and it seems fairly difficult for even native speakers of English to expound the mechanism working in such cases. In particular, it seems to be fairly peculiar that the noun phrase (NP) whose head is the abstract „non-count‟ noun knowledge often takes the indefinite article a/an and makes such phrase as a good knowledge of Greek. The aim of this paper is to find out reasonable answers to the question of why these phrases occur in English grammar and thereby to help native speakers/teachers of English and non-native teachers alike to better instruct their students in 1 the complexity and profundity of English count/non-count dichotomy and actual usage of indefinite articles. This report will first examine the essential qualities of non-count nouns and indefinite articles by reviewing linguistic literature. Then, I shall conduct some research using the British National Corpus (BNC), focusing on statistical and semantic analyses, before finally certain conclusions based on both theoretical and actual observations are drawn.
    [Show full text]
  • Count Vs Noncount Nouns
    George Mason University Writing Center writingcenter.gmu.edu The [email protected] Writing Center 703.993.1200 Count vs. Noncount Nouns Before forming plurals correctly, it is important to understand the difference between count and noncount nouns. Count nouns are the nouns that we can physically count (e.g. one table, two tables, three tables), so they make a distinction between singular and plural forms. Noncount nouns are the nouns that cannot be counted, and they do not make a distinction between singular and plural forms. Although these nouns may refer to large quantities of things, they act like singular nouns grammatically. Noncount nouns: 1) Never take the plural ending “s” 2) Always take a singular verb 3) Cannot be used with the indefinite article “a/an” and are frequently used with no article at all 4) Are used with collective quantity words like “a lot of,” “some,” “any,” “much,” or “more,” instead of count words like “many,” “several,” “two,” or “few.” If you work on an academic paper, keep these noncount nouns in mind because they are often misused: money, research, advice, knowledge, information, and evidence (NOT moneys, researches, advices, etc.). The following categories of words frequently contain noncount nouns: Category Non-count nouns Examples Abstractions Beauty, revenge, knowledge, progress, Ignorance causes poverty. poverty Liquids and gases water, beer, air, gasoline, milk Gas is cheaper than oil. Wine is my favorite beverage. Materials gold, silver, wood, glass, sand He had a will made of iron. Gold is more valuable than silver. Categories of food rice, flour, cheese, salt, yogurt Bread is delicious.
    [Show full text]
  • Verbal Agreement with Collective Nominal Constructions: Syntactic and Semantic Determinants
    ATLANTIS Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies 39.1 (June 2017): 33-54 issn 0210-6124 | e-issn 1989-6840 Verbal Agreement with Collective Nominal Constructions: Syntactic and Semantic Determinants Yolanda Fernández-Pena Universidade de Vigo [email protected] This corpus-based study investigates the patterns of verbal agreement of twenty-three singular collective nouns which take of-dependents (e.g., a group of boys, a set of points). The main goal is to explore the influence exerted by theof -PP on verb number. To this end, syntactic factors, such as the plural morphology of the oblique noun (i.e., the noun in the of- PP) and syntactic distance, as well as semantic issues, such as the animacy or humanness of the oblique noun within the of-PP, were analysed. The data show the strongly conditioning effect of plural of-dependents on the number of the verb: they favour a significant proportion of plural verbal forms. This preference for plural verbal patterns, however, diminishes considerably with increasing syntactic distance when the of-PP contains a non-overtly- marked plural noun such as people. The results for the semantic issues explored here indicate that animacy and humanness are also relevant factors as regards the high rate of plural agreement observed in these constructions. Keywords: agreement; collective; of-PP; distance; animacy; corpus . Concordancia verbal con construcciones nominales colectivas: sintaxis y semántica como factores determinantes Este estudio de corpus investiga los patrones de concordancia verbal de veintitrés nombres colectivos singulares que toman complementos seleccionados por la preposición of, como en los ejemplos a group of boys, a set of points.
    [Show full text]
  • Names a Person, Place, Thing, Or an Idea. A. Common Noun – Names Any One of a Group of Persons, Places, Things, Or Ideas
    Name: __________________________________________ Block: ______ English II: Price 1. Noun – names a person, place, thing, or an idea. a. Common noun – names any one of a group of persons, places, things, or ideas. b. Proper noun – names a particular person, place, thing, or idea. c. Compound noun – consists of two or more words that together name a person, place, thing, or idea. d. Concrete noun – names a person, place, thing that can be perceived by one or more of the senses. e. Abstract noun – names an idea, a feeling, a quality, or a characteristic. f. Collective noun – names a group of people, animals, or things. 2. Pronoun – takes the place of one or more nouns or pronouns. a. Antecedent – the word or word group that a pronoun stands for. b. Personal pronouns – refers to the one(s) speaking (first person), the one(s) spoken to (second person), or the one(s) spoken about (third person). Singular Plural First person I, me, my, mine We, us, our, ours Second person You, your, yours You, your, yours Third person He, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its They, them, their, theirs c. Case Forms of Personal Pronouns – form that a pronoun takes to show its relationship to other words in a sentence. Case Forms of Personal Pronouns Nominative Case Objective Case Possessive Case Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural First Person I We Me Us My, mine Our, ours Second Person You You You You Your, yours Your, yours Third Person He, she, it they Him her it them His, her, hers, its Their, theirs d.
    [Show full text]
  • Syntactic Variation in English Quantified Noun Phrases with All, Whole, Both and Half
    Syntactic variation in English quantified noun phrases with all, whole, both and half Acta Wexionensia Nr 38/2004 Humaniora Syntactic variation in English quantified noun phrases with all, whole, both and half Maria Estling Vannestål Växjö University Press Abstract Estling Vannestål, Maria, 2004. Syntactic variation in English quantified noun phrases with all, whole, both and half, Acta Wexionensia nr 38/2004. ISSN: 1404-4307, ISBN: 91-7636-406-2. Written in English. The overall aim of the present study is to investigate syntactic variation in certain Present-day English noun phrase types including the quantifiers all, whole, both and half (e.g. a half hour vs. half an hour). More specific research questions concerns the overall frequency distribution of the variants, how they are distrib- uted across regions and media and what linguistic factors influence the choice of variant. The study is based on corpus material comprising three newspapers from 1995 (The Independent, The New York Times and The Sydney Morning Herald) and two spoken corpora (the dialogue component of the BNC and the Longman Spoken American Corpus). The book presents a number of previously not discussed issues with respect to all, whole, both and half. The study of distribution shows that one form often predominated greatly over the other(s) and that there were several cases of re- gional variation. A number of linguistic factors further seem to be involved for each of the variables analysed, such as the syntactic function of the noun phrase and the presence of certain elements in the NP or its near co-text.
    [Show full text]
  • Cross-Linguistic Evidence for Semantic Countability1
    Eun-Joo Kwak 55 Journal of Universal Language 15-2 September 2014, 55-76 Cross-Linguistic Evidence for Semantic Countability1 2 Eun-Joo Kwak Sejong University, Korea Abstract Countability and plurality (or singularity) are basically marked in syntax or morphology, and languages adopt different strategies in the mass-count distinction and number marking: plural marking, unmarked number marking, singularization, and different uses of classifiers. Diverse patterns of grammatical strategies are observed with cross-linguistic data in this study. Based on this, it is concluded that although countability is not solely determined by the semantic properties of nouns, it is much more affected by semantics than it appears. Moreover, semantic features of nouns are useful to account for apparent idiosyncratic behaviors of nouns and sentences. Keywords: countability, plurality, countability shift, individuation, animacy, classifier * This work is supported by the Sejong University Research Grant of 2013. Eun-Joo Kwak Department of English Language and Literature, Sejong University, Seoul, Korea Phone: +82-2-3408-3633; Email: [email protected] Received August 14, 2014; Revised September 3, 2014; Accepted September 10, 2014. 56 Cross-Linguistic Evidence for Semantic Countability 1. Introduction The state of affairs in the real world may be delivered in a different way depending on the grammatical properties of languages. Nominal countability makes part of grammatical differences cross-linguistically, marked in various ways: plural (or singular) morphemes for nouns or verbs, distinct uses of determiners, and the occurrences of classifiers. Apparently, countability and plurality are mainly marked in syntax and morphology, so they may be understood as having less connection to the semantic features of nouns.
    [Show full text]
  • Collective Nouns Collective Nouns Are Names for a Collection Or a Number of People Or Things
    10/27/2018 What is a Collective Noun? Examples & Exercises | Ginger (//www.gingersoftware.com/) Grammar Rules << Back to Nouns (https://www.gingersoftware.com/content/grammar-rules/nouns/) Collective Nouns Collective nouns are names for a collection or a number of people or things. Words like group, herd, and array are collective noun examples. Here, we’ll take a closer look at collective nouns, and provide even more examples, placing them in context so you can gain a greater understanding of how they work. What is a Collective Noun You might not know it, but you encounter collective nouns in everyday speech. Collective nouns are words for single things that are made up of more than one person, animal, place, thing, or idea. You can’t have a team without individual members; even so, we discuss a team as a single entity. Collective Noun Examples Remember that nouns (http://www.gingersoftware.com/content/grammar-rules/nouns/) are words naming people, animals, places, and things. Collective nouns are in a class all their own. Once you’ve read these examples, you’ll find it much easier to recognize collective nouns when you see them. Our class took a field trip to the natural history museum. The herd of bison ran across the prairie, leaving a massive dust cloud in its wake. We waited anxiously for the jury to come to a verdict. This year’s basketball team includes three players who are over six feet tall. Napoleon’s army was finally defeated at Waterloo. The town council has approved plans to create a new park.
    [Show full text]
  • Full and Null Pronouns in Spanish: the Zero Pronoun Hypothesis
    Full and Null Pronouns in Spanish: the Zero Pronoun Hypothesis*. Luis Alonso-Ovalle & Francesco D’Introno University of Massachusetts at Amherst 1. The Puzzle Montalbetti (1984) points out certain semantic differences between phonetically full and phonetically empty pronouns (henceforth full and null pronouns) that challenge the traditional interpretive parallelism between empty and full categories (see Chomsky 1981, 1982). He shows that both in subject (1) and object position (2), while null pronouns can be interpreted as bound variables (as in (1a) and (2a) ), full pronouns cannot (as in (1c) and (2c)).1 (1) a. Nadiei sabe que proi vendrá. Nobody know:3S that pro come:3SFUT ‘Nobodyi knows that hei will come’. b. ~∃x ( person’ (x) & ( know’ (x) ( come’(x) ) )2 c. *Nadiei sabe que éli vendrá. Nobody know:3S that pro come3SFUT ‘Nobodyi knows that hej will come’. d. ~∃x ( person’ (x) & ( know’ (x) ( come’(y) ) ) (2) a. Nadiei sabe que el profesor lo vigila proi Nobody know:3S that the teacher HIM-CL watch-over:3S pro ‘Nobodyi knows that the teacher watches over himi’. b. ~∃x ( person’ (x) & know’ (x) (watch-over’ (p) (x) ) ) c. *Nadiei sabe que el profesor lo vigila a éli. Nobody know:3S that the teacher HIM-CL watch-over:3s him ‘Nobodyi knows that the teacher watches over himj’. d. ~∃x ( person’(x) & know’ (x) (watch-over’ (p) (y) ) ) Contrasts like those under (1) and (2) seem to suggest that a principle equivalent to (3) has to be taken to describe the strategy responsible for anaphora resolution in Spanish3. (3) Variable binding is restricted to null pronouns.
    [Show full text]
  • 3 Types of Anaphors
    3 Types of anaphors Moving from the definition and characteristics of anaphors to the types of ana- phors, this chapter will detail the nomenclature of anaphor types established for this book. In general, anaphors can be categorised according to: their form; the type of relationship to their antecedent; the form of their antecedents; the position of anaphors and antecedents, i.e. intrasentential or intersentential; and other features (cf. Mitkov 2002: 8-17). The procedure adopted here is to catego- rise anaphors according to their form. It should be stressed that the types dis- tinguished in this book are not universal categories, so the proposed classifica- tion is not the only possible solution. For instance, personal, possessive and re- flexive pronouns can be seen as three types or as one type. With the latter, the three pronoun classes are subsumed under the term “central pronouns”, as it is adopted here. Linguistic classifications of anaphors can be found in two established gram- mar books, namely in Quirk et al.’s A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (2012: 865) and in The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Stirling & Huddleston 2010: 1449-1564). Quirk et al. include a chapter of pro- forms and here distinguish between coreference and substitution. However, they do not take anaphors as their starting point of categorisation. Additionally, Stirling & Huddleston do not consider anaphors on their own but together with deixis. As a result, anaphoric noun phrases with a definite article, for example, are not included in both categorisations. Furthermore, Schubert (2012: 31-55) presents a text-linguistic view, of which anaphors are part, but his classification is similarly unsuitable because it does not focus on the anaphoric items specifi- cally.
    [Show full text]
  • All for One: Subject-Verb Agreement for Compounds and Collective Subjects by K
    The Scrivener: Modern Legal Writing All for One: Subject-Verb Agreement for Compounds and Collective Subjects by K. K. DuVivier © 2004 K.K. DuVivier K.K. DuVivier is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Lawyering Process Program at the University of Denver College of Law. Do you have questions about legal writing? K.K. DuVivier will be happy to address them through the Scrivener column. Send your questions to: [email protected] or call her at (303) 871-6281. I frequently get questions from readers, and when possible, answer them immediately. However, the following question was complex enough that I thought I would share it, as well as my response, through a column. KK: I missed the memo that changed noun-verb agreement on nouns formerly defined as singular i.e. "staff," meaning more than one person, as in "the staff are." When did it change from "the staff is"? Who decided on this change, and why wasn’t I notified? I’m making light of this issue, but I’m perplexed. P.S. Grammar check didn’t get the memo either. District Judge Marilyn Leonard Compound Subjects The general rule is that a singular subject takes a singular verb and a plural subject takes a plural verb. Examples: —She enjoys chocolate cake. (Singular subject with singular verb.) —They enjoy chocolate cake, too. (Plural subject with plural verb.) But what happens when the subject is two or more nouns combined by a conjunction? These "conjunctive-compound subjects" usually take a plural verb. Example: —The plaintiff and defendant agree to the continuance.
    [Show full text]
  • Verb Agreement with Collective Nouns and Other Tricky Subjects
    LESSON STUDENT LESSON SUMMARY COPYMASTER 6 Verb Agreement with Collective Nouns and Other Tricky Subjects ACADEMIC VOCABULARY collective noun: names a group of people or things number: in grammar, whether a word refers to one (singular) or more than one (plural) agreement: the use of singular verbs for singular subjects and plural verbs for plural subjects HERE’S HOW Grammar 6 Step 1: Review collective nouns. A collective noun can be singular or plural depending on how it is used in a sentence. EXAMPLES army, audience, class, committee, council, family, group, nation, team Step 2: Use a singular verb when a collective noun refers to one unified action or whole. Use a plural verb when it refers to individuals. Sometimes a pronoun signals whether the noun refers to a unit or to individuals. EXAMPLES In 1911, a robbery team steals the Mona Lisa from the Louvre Museum in Paris. The museum staff considers its strategy to recover the painting. The police have identified their prime suspects. Step 3: Use a singular verb to agree with some nouns ending in -s or -ics, those which look plural but are actually singular. EXAMPLE WORDS: mumps, news, linguistics, physics, economics, molasses, mathematics Step 4: Use a singular verb to agree with the title of a work of art, literature, or music. Titles are singular, even when they consist of a plural noun. sion of Houghton Mifflin Company EXAMPLE TheTwelveChairsisa comic mystery story. Step 5: Use a singular verb to agree with most numerical expressions. Words and phrases that express measurement and number are treated as singular when they refer to an amount rather than to separate items.
    [Show full text]