Sentence structure

Errors of subject-verb agreement

Rule 1
There must be an agreement between the subject and the verb both in number and person

Number(decides the form of verb)

 2 numbers in English language
 Singular sense of one (the number is singular, verb will be singular)
 Plural sense of more than one(the number is plural, verb will be plural)
 A verb remains in its plural form. We make it singular by adding s or es
e.g reads, goes ,eats, plays
 the auxiliary verb also changes in accordance with the number
e .g Singular is, has, was
Plural are, have, were
 Modal auxiliaries do not change
Might, may, must, can, could, will, shall, should, would, ought, neednot, used(to),
e .g he can walk
you can walk
they can walk
I can walk

Person (The person determines the form of a verb)

There are 3 persons in English language
 1st person
Singular I (am, have, was, had, shall)
Plural we (are, have, were, had, shall)

 2nd person
Singular you (are, have, will, had, were)
Plural you(are, have, will, had, were)

 3rd person
Singular he, she. It, any object, any name(is, has, was, had, will )
Plural they (are, have, were, had, will)

Understanding sentence grammar

A. Understanding the basic sentence
1.Identifying subjects and predicates
Subject names something
Simple one or more nouns or pronouns
Complete one or more nouns or pronouns +any modifiers
Predicate makes an assertion about the subject or describes an action by the subject
Simple one or more verbs
Complete one or more verbs+ any words to complete the meaning of the verb + any modifiers

e.g subject predicate

complete complete
simple simple
some contemporary art stirs controversy

complete complete

simple simple

Critics and the media discuss and dispute its value

 In 2nd example simple subject and simple predicate are both compound , in each two words joined by coordinating
conjunction (and ) serve same function
 Sometimes in short examples simple and complete subject and predicate are the same
e.g art thrives

 If a sentence contains a word group such as ‘that makes it into established museums ‘/’because viewers finally agree
about its quality’ we tempted to mark the subject and verb in the word group as the subject and verb of the sentence but
these word groups are subordinate clauses, made into modifiers by the words they begin with: that & because
 The subject of an English sentence may be a noun or a pronoun that refers to the noun, but not both.
e.g some art it stirs controversy
some art stirs controversy

2.identifying the basic words: nouns and verbs

e.g subject predicate

the earth trembled
the earthquake destroyed the city
the result was chaos
the government sent the city aid
the citizens considered the earthquake a disaster
the word in the subject position name things such as earth, earthquake, government, words in the predicate
position express states or actions such as trembled, destroyed, sent
noun
meaning
nouns name. they may name a person(amna, zoya) , a thing(chair, book), a quality(pain, mystry, simplicity), a
place(city, red sea, ocean) or an idea(reality, peace, success)
form
most nouns form the possessive to indicate ownership or source .
singular noun usually add an apostrophe plus –s (zoya’s chair)
plural nouns usually add just an apostrophe (citizens’ rights)
nouns also change form to distinguish between singular (one) and plural(more than one)
most nouns add –s or –es for the plural e.g earthquake earthquakes, city cities,
some nouns have irregular plurals e.g woman women, child children
some nouns do not form plurals e.g equality, anger, oxygen, equipment
nouns with the, a and an
nouns are often preceded by the or a (an before a vowel sound ) these words are usually called articles or
determiners and always indicate that a noun follows
verb
meaning verbs express an action(bring, change, grow) ,an occurrence(become, happen), or a state of being
(be, seem)
form most verbs to be recognized by 2 changes in form
 most verbs add –d or –ed to indicate a difference between present and past time
e.g they play today
they played yesterday
some verbs indicate past time irregularly
e.g eat ate, begin began,
  most present time verbs add –s or –es with subjects that are singular nouns .the exceptions are
be and have, which changes to is and has
e.g the bear escapes
it runs
the woman begins
she sings
helping verb certain forms of all verbs can combine with other words such as do, have, can, might, will and
must, these are called helping verbs or auxiliary verbs
in verb phrases such as could run, will be running, and has escaped , they help to convey time and other
attributes
a note on form and function
in different sentences word may serve different functions take correspondingly different forms, belong to
different word classes
e.g the government sent the city aid (aid function as a noun)
government aids citizens(aid function as a verb)
 we must always determine how a particular word works in a sentence before identifying what part of
speech it is
 the function of a word in a sentence always determines its part of speech in that sentence

pronoun
 most pronouns substitute for nouns and function in sentences as nouns do
 the most common nouns are personal pronouns(I, we, you, he, she, it, they) and relative pronouns(who,
whoever, which, that)
 most of these change form to indicate their function in the sentence
e.g he called me
I called him back
3.forming sentence patterns with nouns and verbs
English builds all sentences on the 5 basic patterns

intransitive verb (not passing over:)

cannot be followed by a direct object
cannot be used in the passive voice
transitive verb (“passing over”):
must have a direct object to complete the meaning of the sentence ,
some transitive verbs can have both a direct object and indirect object,
the verb transfer the action from subject to object
may be used in the passive voice
 some verbs are both transitive and intransitive (begin, learn, read, write, walk, drive, understand, continue, play,
return, grow, run, take off, stop, break, melt, speak, win, sing, )
Pattern 1 : (the earth trembled)
the predicate consists only of the verb. Verbs in this pattern do not require following words to complete their
meaning , are called intransitive verb (not passing over: cannot be followed by a direct object)
e.g subject predicate (intransitive verb)
the earth trembled
the hospital may close
Pattern 2: (the earthquake destroyed the city)
 The predicate consists of a verb followed by a noun that identifies who or what receives the action of the verb. This
noun is a direct object . verbs that require direct objects to complete their meaning are called transitive verb
(“passing over”: must have a direct object to complete the meaning of the sentence , some transitive verbs can
have both a direct object and indirect object, the verb transfer the action from subject to object)
e.g subject predicate (transitive verb) (direct object)
the earthquake destroyed the city
education opens doors
Pattern 3: (the result was chaos)
 the verb serving as an equal sign(result = chaos) is a linking verb because it links the subject and the following
description.
the linking verbs include be, seem, appear, become, grow, remain, stay, prove, feel, look, smell, sound, taste
 the word that describes the subject is called a subject complement (it complements or completes the subject)
 the predicate consists of a verb followed by a noun(this noun renames or describes the subject ).
e.g subject predicate (linking verb) (subject complement)
the result was chaos
the man became an accountant
 subject complement in this pattern may also be adjectives, words such as tall and hopeful.
e.g subject predicate (linking verb) (subject complement)
the result was chaotic
the apartments seem expensive

Pattern 4: (the government sent the city aid)

The predicate consists of a verb followed by 2 nouns, the 2nd noun(aid) is a direct object. but the 1st noun(city) is an
indirect object, identifying to or for whom the action of the verb is performed. The direct object and indirect object
refer to different things, people, or places
e.g subject predicate (transitive verb) (indirect object) (direct object)
the government sent the city aid
one company offered its employees bonuses
 a number of verbs can take indirect objects, including those above and allow, bring, buy, deny, find, get, leave,
make, pay, read, sell, show, teach, write
 with some verbs expressing action done to or for someone, the indirect object must be turned into a phrase
beginning with to or for, these verbs include : admit, announce, demonstrate, explain, introduce, mention, prove,
recommend, say, suggest. The to or for phrase then falls after the direct object .
e.g the manual explains workers the new procedure
the manual explains the new procedure to workers

Pattern 5: (the citizens considered the earthquake a disaster)

the predicate consists of a verb followed by 2 nouns, the 1st noun is a direct object and the 2nd noun(object
complement, it complements or completes the object) renames or describes it
e.g subject predicate (transitive verb) (direct object) (object complement)
the citizens considered the earthquake a disaster
the class elected aamna president
an object complement may be a noun or an adjective
e.g subject predicate (transitive verb) (direct object) (object complement)
the citizens considered the earthquake disastrous
success makes some people nervous