列列印版 主语动词配对 (Subject Verb Agreement | English Lesson | Common Grammar Mistakes) - VoiceTube《看影⽚片學英語》 2018/6/1, 8)33 PM

VoiceTube
(Subject Verb Agreement | English Lesson | Common Grammar
Mistakes)
1. Hello, I'm Emma from mmmEnglish!
2. One of the most common grammar mistakes
3. that English learners make
4. is to do with the subject verb agreement.
5. What's that?
6. It's as simple as it sounds!
7. The subject and the verb in English sentences
8. must agree.
9. They must match.
10. We go to the beach on Saturdays.
11. If the subject is plural,
12. you need to use a plural verb form.
13. He goes to the beach on Saturdays.
14. He goes.
15. The subject is singular,
16. so you need to use a singular verb form.
17. And this is true, most of the time!
18. Now, you might be thinking that you
19. understand subject verb agreement.
20. It's simple, it's easy, right?
21. But it's the first thing that many English learners forget!
22. But don't worry, there are some simple
23. standard rules that you can use to help you.
24. But some aspects of singular and plural noun usage
25. make this a little more complex.
26. So that's why I'm going to teach you some tips
27. to master subject verb agreement in English.
28. Before we start,
29. I want to highlight that there are two main areas
30. where subject verb agreement can cause you problems.
31. The first is in your writing.
32. And it's important to know
33. the subject verb agreement rules
34. and how to use them correctly
35. so that your English writing is grammatically correct.
36. The other is your speaking skills.
37. Now, perhaps you feel confident that you know
38. how to match verbs to their subject
39. but the challenge is making that clear

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40. when you're speaking.

41. And sometimes,
42. you might not even know this is a problem for you.
43. The final consonant sounds are so important
44. to communicating clearly.
45. But for many English learners,
46. it's not that easy to do.
47. Pronouncing the difference between do and does.
48. Now if this sounds like you,
49. then I want you to try and practise with me
50. out loud during this lesson.
51. Make sure you're hitting those final consonant sounds.
52. Okay?
53. Let's begin.
54. In the present tense,
55. nouns and verbs agree
56. in opposite ways.
57. When your subject is plural,
58. you usually add S to show that it's plural, right?
59. Car becomes cars.
60. Baby becomes babies.
61. But when your subject is plural,
62. you do not add an S to your verb.
63. The cars look expensive.
64. Our noun, cars,
65. is plural.
66. Cars.
67. Now our verb agrees with our subject.
68. The cars look expensive.
69. Now compare this to:
70. The car looks expensive.
71. When our noun is singular,
72. our verb needs to include an S.
73. In these examples,
74. the noun and the verb agree in opposite ways.
75. But I can already hear you saying
76. "What about if your subject is I or you?
77. They're singular subjects
78. but they don't use the singular verb form."
79. Yes,
80. but they're an exception to the rule.
81. Subject verb agreement rules are different
82. when your subject is in the third-person singular.
83. So that's when your subject is a he,
84. a she or an it.

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85. The subjects I and you are different.

86. Even though they're also singular nouns,
87. they take the plural form of the verb
88. and you just need to remember that.
89. I like to go swimming.
90. She likes to go swimming.
91. Both of these subjects are singular
92. but the verb forms are different.
93. Now,
94. if there is an auxiliary verb,
95. a helping verb,
96. in your sentence
97. like do or does
98. in the present simple
99. or am, is, are, was, were in the continuous tenses
100. or have or has
101. in the perfect tenses
102. then,
103. you need to think about your subject verb agreement
104. because the auxiliary verb
105. becomes the agreeing verb,
106. the verb that agrees with the subject.
107. The dogs don't want it.
108. The dog doesn't want it.
109. We're going to the beach.
110. He is going to the beach.
111. Anna and Tony have been driving for hours.
112. Anna has been driving for hours.
113. Now modal verbs
114. like may, could, will, must, should,
115. they're also auxiliary verbs.
116. They help the main verb in the sentence
117. but the subject verb agreement rules are different
118. with modal auxiliary verbs.
119. The verb following a modal verb
120. is never in the S form.
121. It's always in the infinitive form.
122. My friends might come.
123. My friend might come.
124. Not my friend might comes.
125. You should come.
126. He should come.
127. Not he should comes.
128. Now, English sentences are not always this simple,
129. are they?

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130. As you add more information to your sentences,

131. they become more complex
132. and it might be difficult to know whether your noun is
133. singular or plural.
134. But just remember that the same structure
135. and rules apply.
136. But you need to pay close attention
137. to where your subject is
138. and if it's singular or plural
139. because your verb must always match the subject
140. regardless of the words
141. that come in between
142. the verb and the subject.
143. It must always match.
144. Do you know what an indefinite pronoun is?
145. They're words like
146. everybody, nobody
147. anybody, someone.
148. Usually indefinite pronouns
149. take singular verbs.
150. Everybody wants to be loved.
151. Nobody likes to be left out.
152. Now the subject of English sentences
153. can be a little more complicated
154. with compound subjects.
155. Group nouns and relative clauses.
156. Look at this sentence.
157. My mum is happy for me.
158. My mum and dad are proud of me.
159. Two singular subjects
160. joined by "and"
161. means that your subject becomes plural
162. and now your verb needs to show this.
163. It's the same as saying that
164. they are proud of me.
165. So we can say that
166. two or more singular subjects
167. joined with "and"
168. become a plural subject
169. and they need a plural verb.
170. Now look at this sentence.
171. Peter or Paul is coming.
172. Now in this sentence,
173. the two singular subjects
174. are treated as a singular subject

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175. because "or" gives us an option.

176. We're not saying both.
177. It's one singular noun or the other.
178. Not both of them together.
179. We would say
180. Peter and Paul are coming.
181. or
182. Peter or Paul is coming.
183. Playing football is fun.
184. Now the same rule applies
185. for gerunds and gerund phrases.
186. When gerunds are the subject,
187. they take the singular form of the verb.
188. Waiting for the bus is annoying.
189. But
190. when they're linked by "and"
191. they also take the plural form.
192. Meeting friends after work
193. and going to the beach
194. are my favourite things about living here.
195. Okay, so what about group nouns?
196. Single nouns that are actually
197. groups of people or things.
198. Club,
199. team,
200. company,
201. family,
202. crowd,
203. class.
204. They can be either singular or plural,
205. depending on the meaning of an individual sentence.
206. This is because they can describe
207. the individuals in the group
208. and since there's more than one,
209. it must be plural.
210. But it's also possible to use these nouns
211. as a single group
212. when you're referring to the group as a whole.
213. Then they're singular.
214. So they can be a little tricky!
215. For example.
216. The team is organising the event.
217. So this is referring to just the single unit,
218. it's a singular noun.
219. So we need to use the singular verb.

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220. The team are meeting today.

221. So the members of the club are meeting together.
222. Using the plural form of the verb.
223. The teams are meeting today.
224. So when used plurally,
225. this means that there are
226. many of the individual group nouns.
227. There are more than one team
228. or family or a club.
229. And don't forget that some nouns
230. look like plural nouns
231. but they take a singular form.
232. For example, news.
233. It seems plural because of the S
234. but we need to treat it as a singular noun.
235. You need a singular verb.
236. The news is interesting.
237. Of course, any uncountable noun is treated this way too.
238. So don't say the furnitures are comfortable.
239. Say the furniture is comfortable.
240. Okay let's keep going!
241. We're getting a little more complex now.
242. Sometimes
243. the subject is tricky to find in English sentences.
244. It's not always before the noun.
245. Subjects and verbs change positions
246. in English questions
247. so you need to make sure you identify
248. which is the subject
249. before you choose the verb form.
250. What are the steps we need to follow?
251. In this sentence, "the steps" are the subject
252. and the verb is "are"
253. because it's plural.
254. There are many plants in your garden.
255. There is a plant in the bathroom.
256. Look at this sentence.
257. The car, which belongs to my brother,
258. is not very clean.
259. Relative clauses can make it difficult
260. to locate the subject and the verb.
261. Noun phrases also make this difficult,
262. where a group of words act as a noun.
263. The new features of the car are impressive.
264. "The features" are the subject.

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265. It's plural, so it needs a plural verb

266. The more complex that your sentence becomes,
267. the harder you need to look for the subject and the verb
268. and make sure that they agree.
269. That was exhausting, wasn't it?
270. You might need to go for a walk now
271. to let all of that sink in or watch again.
272. I'm sure that some of this lesson
273. was good revision for you,
274. but perhaps you learned a few new things
275. about subject verb agreement, too.
276. I hope so!
277. If you love this channel and you enjoy my lessons,
278. please subscribe just here
279. and let me know in the comments
280. what type of lessons you'd like me to make in the future.
281. And keep watching this playlist!
282. This playlist here
283. will help you to practise your pronunciation
284. and learn more about silent letters in English.
285. And in this lesson, you'll be able to try out
286. one of my English imitation lessons for free!
287. So I'll see you next week for another mmmEnglish lesson!
288. Bye for now!

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