Welcome to Gaia! ::

Subject-Verb Agreement.

The subject of a sentence is what the sentence is about. It's a noun that's reponsible for performing the action of the verb. Let's do this together, so that we don't get confused, shall we?

The dog ran to his master.

Ask yourself, "What is this sentence about?" The sentence is about the dog. What does the dog do? The dog runs. So, in this sentence, the subject is 'dog,' and the verb is 'ran.' Unfortunately, I have seen people having trouble with making these two parts of the sentence work properly with each other.

You wouldn't say "My mother cook the meals in the kitchen," because the subject in this sentence (mother) is singluar (only one). The verb needs to show that the subject is singular. To make this work, you'd write:

My mother cooks the meals in the kitchen.

See? Easy, isn't it? When using a singular subject, you use the singular form of the verb.

He cooks.
They cook.
The dog digs.
The dogs dig.

See what I mean? It's rather simple, once you get the hang of singular and plural subjects and verbs. Now, supposing you have one of those tricky situations, like "everybody." The word may seem to be plural, because there is more than one person in the group of "everybody." Unfortunately, this is not the case. Everybody is considered a singular noun, because the whole group of people is counted as one. It's just like other words that are used to describe a group.

Examples:

Family
Student body
The cast (such as The cast of a movie or play)
Everyone

In cases like these, make VERY sure to use the singular verb to describe the subject.

Our class president told the student body that it should vote.

It's not "they" should vote; it's "it" should vote. The student body is being taken as one large group, and is considered a single entity. Let's try another one, shall we?

Everyone is responsible for proper grammar use.

See? It's not "everybody are," because the word everybody is still considered a singular noun.

I think this is a great thread, far better than critisizing those on their poor English. smile

I will post the banner on the main page of my guild.

Which indefinite artcile should I use?

Should I use the indefinite article "a" or "an?"

The indefinite article "a" should be used to precede any consonant sound that follows it (including y and w). In simpler terms, if you say the word aloud, and hear any consonant sound, y, or w, make sure to use "a" to describe one of that item.

Examples:

a dog, a cat, a rat, a youth, a uniform. (Notice the hard y sound in the last two words)

The indefinite artcile "an" should be used in front of any consonant sound.

Examples:

an hour (see? it goes by sound, not letter), an orange, an ear, an anathema

heart

Although there are arguments about the use of "an" in fron of history, historical, humble, and hypothesis, it's preferable to stick to convention, and use "a" instead of "an." It's been changed over time to "an" because the initial /h/ sound in the beginning of those words becomes almost lost in the rest of the word, since it's an affectation often used by only the snooty foppish dandies of old.

Better to stick with the rules on this one. How many people do you (personally) like that actually drop the /h/ sound in "hypothesis?"

Whoof. It really IS like making a UN resolution, isn't it, SpazLink? gonk

Owwwwies. gonk