This lesson we're going to learn about subject verb agreement which is one of the most common grammar
rules that the College Board loves to use.
So subject verb agreement is when the subject of a clause must match its associated verb.
So that means that there are right or wrong verbs that you can use to pair with a given subject.
So clearly when you read these four clauses he you can tell that two of these sound a little funky.
Now the question is why do those sound wrong.
Well obviously dogs run in a dog run is wrong.
And the reason why is that unlike nouns when you add an s to a verb it becomes singular.
So if a nouns.
When I have an S Of course that is plural a dog and dogs.
Dogs are plural.
But for a verb when there's no s That means it's plural and when there is an estimated singular hence
the plural dogs goes with the plural run.
Just make sure that one has an S and the other one does it very simple.
A dog runs.
So it's a very simple rule but often we get confused because of prepositional phrases these long phrases
and between the subject and the verb which contain many nouns and you may get tempted to think that
one of these nouns is the subject but remember a name that comes after proposition can never ever ever
be the subject of a sentence.
So when you look at a sentence like this we see multiple nouns of course we see students teach classroom
apples.
But the subject here is actually students even though the verb is is quite far away from it.
And that's because about and in their propositions so since about as a proposition the noun that comes
after it teacher is not the subject and the number comes after in the classroom is not the subject and
students is the subject of the sentence and the matching verb is is but is it is not a regular.
It's a form of the common the verb to be.
And the beaver will usually use as an is or was and word.
Now which of these is plural or singular.
The easy way to test is just to use the pronouns he and they would you say he is or he or would you
say they is or they are to since you would say he is is this singular.
And since you would say they are is plural students being plural.
We want to use the plural verb are.
OK straightfoward straightforward Let's jump right into some examples.
Go ahead and read the sentence and try and match subjects and verbs and poset while you do that.
And when you're ready press Resume
OK if you're ready now let's start analyzing the first choice.
Well we have a noun right off the bat.
Evidence.
Evidence is a noun.
Evidence is singular.
Not only because it doesn't have an S but because it's uncountable and we can't count evidence you can't
say to evidence is three evidences.
It's uncountable an uncountable noun are always singular such as water or happiness.
These things are not countable.
So we have a singular verb Singler subject.
First of all first of all let's continue reading evidence from surveys and interviews or from his or
her position.
The noun proposition is surveys.
But since I haven't and without a comma I know joining surveys and interviews as the common objects
of the proposition from so I can pretty much let this whole thing from the surface.
I can delete it because it's not relevant for the subject verb matching.
So let's continue.
Evidence show OK right away we see a problem.
More evidence of a single but show is plural remember it does have an s.
So A's impossibles and its choice and so is p.
I don't even have to consider B because I don't have singular hopes but CD all contain the singular
verbs is shows and shows OK.
So let's continue looking at the other choices.
Let's actually look at Dini first because I see and I'll tell you right now has some issues but it includes
some moves that we haven't covered yet so we'll cover that we'll come back to that one.
Okay let's look at the evidence shows that friendships made in high school.
So these answers are identical all the way up to the verb tense and tense.
So let's check it one more time.
Evidence shows that what does evidence show.
What's the thing that even shows that.
Here is a new cause.
It shows that a new cause for the news objective in this case is friendship's friendships subject is
made the verb to friendships actually make something in the past.
Now of course it doesn't make any sense right friendships can make anything but if I put that in front
of it.
Friendships that are made suddenly make sense.
So we know then that this is not the verb the participle describing the friendships friendships that
are made in high school tend to last.
His the verb tend it matches the subject friendships.
Hence it's correct friendships plural the verb.
He doesn't have an s it's plural.
OK so friendships tend to last.
Well in this case friendships tends.
Again we have the s on both sides.
So that is not a case of subject verb agreement.
Now rounding back on see a couple of issues.
First of all the comparison with the then is uneven.
It's not parallel.
So again we're talking about the finale.
You'll see that later on in the late lesson.
But also if we think about the meaning right now it's saying evidence is showing as if evidence is doing
something as evidence is doing this action.
But instead we want to simply say that it shows us because when you use a simple tense verb it's just
a fact.
It's just a fact that the evidence shows esis actually doing some kind of action of showing us.
OK.
That's a mind based reason why he's incorrect as well.
OK.
But you know if the meaning is a little bit unfamiliar with you then don't worry.
There was a Cleargreen Rosewell which is the comparison.
And again you know you'll learn about that in a late lesson very soon but for now among these choices
we're going to say the deal is correct because evidence matches with shows and Tende matches with friendships
OK.
Let's continue on with the next example.
A pause if you need to and think about which of these highlighted choices is wrong.
And of course we're focusing focusing today on subject verb agreement
OK let's go through the regular process the scientific writings.
There's a subject of the proposition.
So I'm going to ignore what comes after the proposition.
Wilson Stephen Gould and Richard Dawkins It's a list of three things.
After all if we ignore it so the scientific writings which has continued the discussion of genetic issues
so which introduces a new clause this is actually an adjective clause which you learn about in law as
well.
But for now just know that it introduces a new clause and can either signal the subject comes after
it or is the subject itself.
OK.
So in this case which you it's an adjective clause it refers to something and the only thing I can refer
to here is the Writings.
So which refers to the writings.
So which is the subject.
But since it refers to the writings it is plural.
So which has continued banned right away we have an issue because what we said which is plural so has
is singular.
Singular.
Well has is another funny one I just like is am are.
So the way to test it is use he and they would you say he has or he have.
Would you say has or they have what I'm looking for the plural.
I want to know what matches with they.
And of course I would say they have.
So I now have is the plural verb.
So the scientific writings which have continued the discussion to the issues raised by again this is
a participle because I could say that were raised by the issues that were raised by Charles Darwin are
familiar to many high school and college students.
These are is now the main verb to the original subject writings because although has should have been
have because it was referring to the writings the actual subject for has or have was which.
OK didn't introduce a new clause.
I never had a verb.
My first subject.
So I had to keep on going until I found that verb which was R R is plural.
It correctly matches writings which is also plural.
So everything else works.
B is the right answer here or in this case it's right in that it's wrong.
OK.
Final example.
Go ahead and read it through.
Check the verbs pause and when you're ready resume
OK.
Let's go the governor's aides There's the subject eights plural are the verbs right after it.
Nice and easy AIDS.
Ah plural.
That's fine.
AIDS.
Plural Plural.
Works for me.
Governor's aides are convinced that he has a new clause that that isn't the subject it looks like the
announcement is the subject because as a noun after that if there was no noun after that then that would
be the subject.
If he said that it is or that or that I would know that is a subject that refers to something else which
is similar to that previous example we saw which that are very similar.
So in this case we didn't have a noun after which.
So I knew that which was the subject and refer to the writings.
But here since I have that and then I have a nother noun.
I know that denouncement is the subject of the sentence of the clause I should say that the announcement
is a subject position of investigation that I ignore investigation coming just days before the filing
deadline.
So before pre-position in this case.
So the deadline isn't the subject before is worth here's a verb so the verb has to go all the way back
to my first on my on my subject identify identified earlier announcement.
So Nanton singular word is plural so bad.
We have a problem right there should be announcement was calculated to discourage the governor from
running for re-election OK.
So again fairly straightforward.
Most of the time when you read these sentences with subject verb agreement areas you can just tell right
away that sounds wrong but I want you to really focus on identifying them as you practice because for
the harder questions.
Especially in this area detection section we often you know kind of miss the subject verb agreement
error.
Because there are so many words in between the subject and the vote.
Like so it's really important to get good at that.
Defining this as a general skill.
Here's another example
on the graduate record exam examination.
For example students intend to study philosophy in graduate school has scored higher than students in
all but four other majors so right away I see we start with a proposition.
So that means this word here.
The Graduate Record examination is not the subject right because it comes after proposition.
For example students.
OK there's my first subject.
Students For example obviously because 4 is also a prop..
Say it's not example students intending to study philosophy in graduate school has scored.
So here's the verb.
Right has scored is the verb for my subject students but students is plural has is singular not a score
it has an S on the end singular scoring.
I engage it's not even a verb.
So if I put if I take DD to be no verb for this clause so does not the answer.
The answer is B because have is a plural verb have they have pizza.
The students have scored higher than students in all but for the majors the answer is B.