Grammar Review
Agreement
- Present simple tense
Notice: Singular noun / third-person pronoun + singular verb (verb + -s, -es)
Example: The pool of dead people is situated in that forest.
- One of …
Notice: One of + (the) plural noun + singular verb (is, was, has, verb+s)
Example: One of my dogs is bitten by the neighbour's dog.
- A lot of / plenty of / most of / some of / none of / all of
Notice: These quantifiers + uncountable noun + singular verb
Example: Lots of money was not able to make me happy.
- Relative pronoun
Notice: Singular noun (person) + who + singular verb + singular verb
Example: The boy who is punished is not my friend.
Notice: Plural noun (person) + who + plural verb + plural verb
Example: People who are waiting for the train are going to be massacred.
Notice: Singular noun (non-person) + which / that + singular verb + singular verb
Example: The house which was sold was my grandmother's house.
Notice: Plural noun (non-person) + which / that + plural verb + plural verb
Example: The lions which are eating a zebra look at me.
- Singular indefinite pronoun
Notice: anybody / somebody / nobody / everybody / anyone / someone / no one / everyone /
anything / something / nothing / everything / another / each + singular verb
- There ...
Notice: There + singular form of verb to be + singular noun
Example: There is no reason to sing karaoke with you.
Notice: There + plural form of verb to be + plural noun
Example: There are two students in my class.
- Unit
Notice: X units (miles, pounds, yards) + singular verb
Example: Twenty miles is not a great distance for me.
- Collective noun
Example: The audience are requested to dance when the show ends.
Example: The faculty do not agree with the dismissal.
- Either ... or ... / neither ... nor ...
Notice: Either + plural noun + or + singular noun + singular verb
Notice: Either + singular noun + or + plural noun + plural verb
Example: Either the students or the teacher has to be expelled.
- Connector
Notice: Singular noun + as well as / with / together with / including / excluding / besides / in
addition to / like / in accompany with / except / not + noun (singular or plural) + singular verb
Example: A firefighter, not police, is running into the building.
Practice: find an incorrect grammatical rule in each sentence.
1. The Netherlands are called "Les pays bas" in French, and it can be defined as the low country.
2. A cat which has no tongue cannot lick itself, so lots of dogs which have their tongues like cats'
is employed as the cat lickers.
3. Each of the girls are wearing a very short skirt, honestly, I do however not look at it.
4. I hate eating breakfast during the rush hour, considering that the melancholy of finding a toilet
surely occur.
5. Four years are not long enough to forget your severe mistake which hurts your family.
6. Lots of bacteria in the fountain of eternal life was killed by penicillin which a doctor had
dropped.
7. The manager and chief accountant are playing football with his eleven three-year-old children.
8. In truth, there is no mercy here and violence as well as lust of beings lead to murders after
murders.