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Grammar
Course: Grammar > Unit 2
Lesson 1: Introduction to verbsIntroduction to verb agreement
When you match up the subject of a sentence with a verb, it's called 'agreement'. Here's how it works!
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My question is why isn't "I bakes a cake" appropriate, It sounds odd but what is the rule behind it that makes the sentence wrong?(22 votes)Bakesis the third person singular conjugation.Iis the first person singular pronoun.
All sentences must have agreenment between the subject and the verb.(53 votes)
When David says "The Dogs barks" is not okay then could you add something on the end of it? An example could be "The Dogs barks scare me."(6 votes)
The correct grammar for that would be: "The dog's barking scares me."
The reason for this is that "dog's" becomes possessive since the bark belongs to the dog.(21 votes)
I have to agree with trek. With the sentence Jake bake a cake. By simply adding two quotation marks it can work. "Jake bake a cake!"(8 votes)
You would have to add in a comma after "Jake" for that to work. In the example he uses, your way wouldn't work even with quotation marks due to the lack of commas. If you want it to sound as if it's a demand, then the correct way of saying it would be: "Jake, bake a cake!"(7 votes)
- Jake bake a cake. It seems like it's a commanding sentence. So it technically wrong or no?(9 votes)
It is wrong. If it were a command it would be, "Jake, bake a cake." The comma is essential to the sentence if it is a command. But since it is not, it is incorrect. For it to be in the present tense, it should be, "Jake bake s a cake."(11 votes)
i know 'were' is plural, but in this sentence would it be right?
The architect's report, along with some models, were presented yesterday.(7 votes)
Does the (s) mean that anything is plural?(6 votes)
Not quite, there are some words (in which I will not take the time to think of) that end with ‘s’ that are singular.(6 votes)
I have a question:
At2:23/3:34,
In I love it, isn't love a noun? It is an idea.(4 votes)
“Love”, like many words, can function as different parts of speech, depending on how it’s used in the sentence. In this sentence, “love” is what the subject, “I”, is doing. That makes it a verb, not a noun, in this sentence.
Does that help?(6 votes)
- The fundamental concept behind verb agreement is:
Singular subjects take singular verbs and plural subjects take plural verbs.
This is what I have understood(somewhat) till now and tell me whether there is any correction in the above sentence.
The concept of verb agreement has verb agreement to follow. how cool!lol.(6 votes) 
Hello guys, please could someone tell me if this sentence is right, it's not from the lesson it's just a sentence I used recently, here it is "I myself seen it in the movies" we were talking about yoga so I was trying to say I have never seen it in a real life.(3 votes)
Huh, I would have said: "I, myself, saw it in the movies." I wonder if my way was grammatically correct. Hassan, you could say it as: "I, myself, have seen it in the movies." I hope this helps!(6 votes)
Hi guys, please help me with verb agreement on these sentences.
“The movie, including all the previews, takes about two hours to watch.”
Why the verb agreement in this sentence is singular? Aren’t “movie, including all the previews” suggest there are multitude of object?
“Either answer is acceptable.”
It means both answers are correct, but why singular verb agreement is used?
“Every one of those books is fiction.”
It means a multitude of books are fiction, but why singular verb agreement is used?
“The Prime Minister, together with his wife, greets the press cordially.”
It means both the Prime minister and his wife greet the press, but why singular verb agreement is used?(2 votes)
Regarding "the movie" In this sentence, drop the material between the commas, and you can see that the subject is singular. The verb agrees with that.
Regarding "either": "Either" is an adjective modifying a singular subject, "answer". The verb agrees with the subject. (Had the adjective been "both" or "all", then the subject would have had to be plural, and the verb would have to agree with the plural.)
Regarding "Every one..." "Every" modifies the subject "one". The verb agrees with the subject. "of those books" does further modification work, but the subject is still "one".
Regarding "the prime minister" This is exactly the same as the first sentence.
Though they're grammatically correct in the forms in which you presented them, take comfort in the fact that they are poor writing.(5 votes)
2:23Video transcript
- [Voiceover] Hi grammarians. Today I want to talk about
this idea, in English, that we call agreement. So, I'm going to teach
you how to be agreeable, make it so that all of your
sentences get along really well. Let me give you an example. "The dog barks," as opposed to, "The dogs bark." Do you see the difference? It's funny because the 's' seems to migrate, seems to move
from one part of the sentence to the other. So what you wouldn't say is, "The dog bark." That doesn't work. And you wouldn't say, "The dogs barks." I know that seems strange that you wouldn't want to have the 's' follow the other 's', but you actually only
want to have one of these in a sentence. So, "The dog barks." "The dogs bark." When there's only one
of something, strangely, in the present tense, it takes this 's'. So, "Jake bakes a cake." "We bake a cake." Not, "Jake bake a cake," which, admittedly, is
a fun sentence to say. But this is not, in standard
English, this is not correct. It doesn't exhibit what we call agreement. Similarly, you also wouldn't say, "We bakes a cake." If you're familiar with
the Lord of the Rings books or movies, if you remember Gollum, the character Gollum is a
weird little bug-eyed critter whose just kind of
obsessed with the one ring, and he has this very
particular way of speaking that is not, strictly speaking, standard. He's just wild about that ring. And the way he refers to everything, he just throws on an 's' on the end of every word he uses, every verb. So, if he's talking about, you know, this magic ring that he's very fond of, which he calls the precious, he wouldn't just say, "I love it." He'd say, "I loves it." Like so, and that's not correct. That does not show agreement. So, the test here is really... You can figure out whether or not you are using agreement in your sentences if you sound like Gollum. Because if Gollum were being grammatical, he would say, "I love it." So this is the sense that
I want you to develop is you listen to yourself
speak and you ask, "Do I sound like Gollum,
the little ring monster?" Because if you do sound like Gollum, then you're probably not operating under the agreement rules of standard American English, or you're just doing a Gollum impression. That's the basic idea behind agreement Is you just want to make sure that the parts of the sentence match up. Sentence parts match. They agree. They get along. They work. You can learn anything. David out.