Subject Verb Agreement
This feature of English is easier than it is in other languages. A person learning Spanish or Russian or German or maybe about another language needs to learn to modify the form with the verb according the “person” from the verb. That means how the verb changes (is pronounced and spelled differently) based on whether the writer describes:
- what they’re doing (first person),
- the person that is now being spoken to is performing (second person),
- or if the actions of some other person are described (third person).
Let’s take particular notice at this. The idea of subject verb agreement is straightforward. The subject and verb must agree in number. This means that both have to be singular (an individual or thing), or both should be plural (more than an individual or thing).
This is generally not a problem in English, except from the third person singular in the present tense, certainly where an problems occurs. We have to add an “s” or “es” at the end on the verb if the subject or perhaps the being (animal or thing) that may be performing the action is often a noun or pronoun, he, she, it. If you leave off of the letter “s” (he talk funny) you can be talking or writing incorrectly, in the dialect that uneducated people use.
Notice the main difference between singular and plural forms from the following examples: At the identical time onserve the related pronoun in parentheses for every single use in the verb
Singular
The child talks. (He or she talks.)
The man works. (He works.)
Plural
The children talk. (They talk.)
The men work. (They work.)
The following table can help you review the persons in the verb
Singular
First Person – The person who could be the subject from the sentence – I eat fish.
Second Person – The person spoken to through the subject in the sentence – You (one individual) eat fish.
Third Person – The person or thing spoken about because of the subject from the sentence
He eats fish. She eats fish. The cat eats fish.
Plural
First Person – The persons who will be the subject from the sentence – We eat fish.
Second Person – The persons spoken to from the subject from the sentence. – You (several persons) eat fish
Third Person – The persons or things spoken about from the subject in the sentence – They eat fish.
You could see that the only change within the verb in English is from the third person singular on the verb. See what it’s? The verb ends using the letter “s”, he eats. All the other forms from the verb is the same, the straightforward verb without having special ending, I eat, consume, we eat, they eat, all are exactly the same word eat without having changes similar to other languages.
It is straightforward enough to create this correctly in simple sentences like those from the table. It turns into a little more difficult if your sentences tend to be complicated. In these cases, many writers make mistakes with all the agreement involving the subject and also the verb.