Standard English Conventions: Form, Structure, and Sense — Agreement
Subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement, animated as the two words lighting up and connecting while everything parked between them greys out.
11 topics · 42 questions
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Finding the Real Subject
- How it worksHow do you strip a sentence down to a bare subject and a bare verb before checking agreement?
- Worked exampleFind the word that controls the verb in 'The crate of rusted hand tools was left in the barn.'
- Common mistakeWhy doesn't the last noun before the verb get a vote in whether that verb is singular or plural?
- Going furtherWhat happens to the subject hunt when a phrase like 'Restoring the murals' is doing the naming?
Your turneasy1 of 3
An inventory note records what a farm sale turned up in a barn, including 30 hand tools.
Which choice conforms to the conventions of Standard English?The Prepositional Phrase Between Subject and Verb
- How it worksHow does greying out every phrase starting with 'of' or 'in' leave the verb one noun to obey?
- Worked exampleShow me the agreement in 'A shipment of replacement batteries arrives every Thursday' once the phrase slides away.
- Worked exampleFind the verb that fits 'The set of instructions that came with the tent is missing a page.'
- Common mistakeWhy isn't a plural noun tucked inside a prepositional phrase able to make a singular subject plural?
- Going furtherWhat happens to the hunt for the subject when four phrases pile up in front of the verb?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A warehouse log records weekly deliveries of 44 replacement batteries.
Which choice conforms to the conventions of Standard English?Inverted Sentences and There Is versus There Are
- How it worksHow do you flip an inverted sentence back around to see which noun the verb must match?
- Worked exampleWalk me through fixing 'There is fourteen species of penguin' by finding the subject behind the verb.
- Going furtherWhat happens when a sentence begins 'On the shelf above the stove sit' and the subject arrives last?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A field guide's new edition describes 13 species of penguin.
Which choice conforms to the conventions of Standard English?Compound Subjects Joined by And
- How it worksHow does 'and' weld two subjects into one plural unit that the verb then has to match?
- Worked exampleFind the right verb for 'The curator and the archivist disagree about the date of the map.'
- Common mistakeWhy doesn't 'Each boy and girl' take the plural verb that 'and' would normally demand?
- Going furtherWhat happens when 'and' joins two nouns that name a single thing, the way macaroni and cheese does?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A museum note records a disagreement about a map drawn in 1647.
Which choice conforms to the conventions of Standard English?Compound Subjects Joined by Or and Nor
- How it worksHow does the nearest-subject rule settle the verb after 'either or' and after 'neither nor'?
- Common mistakeWhy doesn't the word 'neither' force a singular verb no matter what noun happens to follow 'nor'?
- Worked exampleShow me why the verb changes when 'Neither the players nor the coach was told' gets reversed.
Your turneasy1 of 3
A notice is drafted for a roster of 31 players and one coach.
Which choice conforms to the conventions of Standard English?Collective Nouns as Subjects
- How it worksHow does a collective noun get counted as one unit under American Standard English?
- Worked exampleWalk me through choosing the verb in 'The jury deliberates for six hours' and why the plural keeps tempting you.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't 'The team are playing tonight' acceptable on a test written in American Standard English?
- Going furtherWhat happens when a writer means the members individually and adds a word like 'members' to say so?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A court report covers a trial that ran 15 days.
Which choice conforms to the conventions of Standard English?Indefinite Pronouns as Subjects
- How it worksHow do the endings -one, -body, and -thing mark a pronoun as singular whatever follows it?
- Worked exampleFind the verb that fits 'Each of the twelve samples was weighed twice' and why 'samples' does not control it.
- Going furtherWhat happens with 'some', 'all', and 'most', whose number is decided by the noun behind them?
- Common mistakeWhy doesn't 'none of the results' settle the verb the way 'each of the results' settles it?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A lab record covers 35 samples weighed before a run.
Which choice conforms to the conventions of Standard English?A Nonrestrictive Clause Between Subject and Verb
- How it worksHow does lifting out whatever sits between the commas restore a two-word skeleton you can check at a glance?
- Worked exampleShow me the subject and verb in 'The lighthouse, which sailors trusted for a century, still stands.'
- Going furtherWhat happens when the clause in the middle carries a subject and a verb of its very own?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A guidebook entry covers a lighthouse that sailors used for 144 years.
Which choice conforms to the conventions of Standard English?The Number Of versus A Number Of
- How it worksHow does 'the number' name a single quantity while 'a number' simply means 'many'?
- Worked exampleWalk me through the verbs in 'The number of otters has grown' and 'A number of otters have returned.'
- Common mistakeWhy doesn't the plural noun sitting after 'of' decide the verb in either of those two phrases?
- Going furtherWhat happens with cousins of these phrases like 'a variety of' and 'the majority of'?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A wildlife report covers a river where otters were counted for 29 years.
Which choice conforms to the conventions of Standard English?Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement in Number
- How it worksHow does one arrow drawn backwards from 'they' to the noun it stands for reveal a count that does not match?
- Worked exampleFind the mismatch in 'Every applicant must submit their transcript' and the two repairs available.
- Going furtherWhat happens to the arrow when the antecedent is a collective noun such as 'the orchestra'?
- Common mistakeWhy isn't a plural pronoun automatically safe when the antecedent could be a person of any gender?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A museum note describes the rehanging of 29 paintings.
Which choice conforms to the conventions of Standard English?Ambiguous Antecedents
- How it worksHow do two arrows leaving one pronoun and both staying lit define the ambiguity error?
- Common mistakeWhy doesn't the nearest noun automatically claim the pronoun and settle the question?
- Worked exampleShow me three repairs for 'The senator told the reporter that she had misread the bill.'
- Going furtherWhat happens when a pronoun points back at a whole idea rather than at any single noun?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A news brief reads: 'When the senator met the reporter in 2013, she had already read the bill.'
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