Training Materials | Dr B Bhattacharya

EET1 Lecture 2 Notes

A large number of questions in the Grammar part of the Verbal Ability Section are of the
Error Identification, Fill in the Blanks and the Sentence Improvement pattern. And the most
common topic for this is Subject-Verb Agreement.

To attempt these questions, it is important to know how to identify the Subject and Verb of
any sentence.

How to Identify the Verb in a Sentence

The easiest way to find a verb in a sentence is to change the time of the sentence and find the
word that changes.

For example:
I took a big risk in applying for a new job in the same company.

If we were to change the tense of this sentence to Future Tense:

(Next year) I (will take) a big risk in applying for a new job in the same company.
The part that changes is the word took – it becomes will take; so, took is the verb.

How to Identify the Subject in a Sentence

The subject of the sentence usually answers the following question: Who/ what is this
sentence about? We can identify it by placing who/ what before the verb and asking a
question.

For example:
The sound of rain would be like music to my ears.

If we were to change the tense of the sentence, we would see that the part that changes is
would be like. It can become will be like or is like or was like. So, that is the verb. Now, if
we ask “Who/what would be like [music]?” – the answer i.e., sound is the subject.

Prepositional phrases may sometimes come in between the subject and the verb. They
should not be identified as the subject. For instance, in the previous example, “of rain” is the
prepositional phrase that acts as a modifier – it qualifies the subject [sound], but it should
not itself be considered the subject. So, the following sentences both have singular verbs
because the subject is sound [singular] and not rain or hooves.
• The sound of rain is like music.
• The sound of hooves is like music.

Gerunds can be the subject of sentence and should not be confused with the verb. A gerund
is a noun that looks like a verb because it ends with a -ing.

For example:
Taking dangerous risks seems to frighten most hardworking people.

Here the verb is seems not taking – Taking is a gerund that forms the subject of the
sentence.

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 Training Materials | Dr B Bhattacharya

The sentences below also have gerunds as the subjects:

• Volunteering is a great way to give back to your community.
• Eating fruits and vegetables is important for a healthy diet.

Try out the exercise below for Practice:

1) After a long, rainy winter, the woman and her husband had become tired of their small
apartment, so they decided to drive to a seedy part of town in search of excitement.
2) The couple had been cruising slowly down a side street, looking for some local nightlife,
when they heard music coming from a small bar on the corner.
3) They had just left their car when some stray cats started fighting in a side alley.
4) When the couple walked in and sat down at the bar, nobody bothered to look up.
5) At one end of the bar, a tired-looking woman was languidly smoking her cigarette and
expertly blowing out smoke rings.
6) The bartender was wiping down the counter and softly whistling to himself.
7) Hunched over a table in the back corner, four men were enjoying a friendly game of
cards.
8) A sad Billie Holiday tune had been playing softly from an old jukebox, but once the song
was over, the room went silent.
9) Suddenly, a man in the back stood and threw his cards down on the table, cursing
loudly.
10) When he began to reach into his pocket, the couple looked at each other anxiously and
then hurriedly backed out the door.

Check the answers in the next page after you try the questions above.

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 Training Materials | Dr B Bhattacharya

Answer Key
Q. No. Subject Main Verb
1 the woman and her husband, they had become, decided
2 couple, they had been cruising, heard
3 they, cats had, started, fighting
4 couple, nobody walked, sat, bothered
5 woman was smoking, blowing
6 bartender was wiping, whistling
7 men were enjoying
8 tune, song, room had been playing, was, went
9 man stood, threw
10 he, couple began, looked, backed