Name: BBC Masterclass: Subject Verb Agreement 2
Uploaded: 2020-07-01T17:45:46.000Z
Duration: 4 min 2 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

…and I say that a dancing dog is funnier than a cat playing the piano! Well I disagree!

Adverbs of manner

But unfortunately for subjects and verbs, according to the rules of grammar, they must

agree. So here are three more ways to make sure that your subjects and verbs always agree.

The government is debating the new law. The government are debating the new law.

Now, government is a collective noun which represents a group of people, like police.

But unlike police, which is always plural, government can be singular or plural depending

on whether you mean: a group of individuals working together, i.e. they; or a single unit, it.

It's also worth noting that in a relative clause, we use 'who' for the group and

'The government, who are in talks right now, are reviewing the law.'

Or, 'The government, which is in talks right now, is reviewing the law.'

Now, despite the fact that 3 is a plural number and minutes is a plural noun, this sentence

uses a singular verb; and this is because within the context, three minutes is considered

to be one unit of time. This is also true for amounts, distances, periods of time, quantities, weights etc.

Be careful with expressions with ONE. Even if the noun is plural, we still use a singular

verb. This is easier to remember with something like:

But much more difficult when you have a sentence such as:

More than one of us is a secret undercover agent.

Be careful with portions! The noun after 'of' dictates the verb. For example.

Finally, when 'speaking' mathematics the verb can be singular or plural and the funny

thing is that people often switch inconsistently, even in the same sentence. So, for example:

Two and three is five. Two and three are five.

Finally, a quick note about indefinite nouns such as: somebody, anywhere, nothing…and

the others. They take singular verbs. For example:

However, once you've referred to somebody using 'someone', the pronoun that we use

to refer to the same person is 'they', which takes a plural verb; and this is because

we don't know if the person is a he or a she. For example:

Someone is at the door. They are knocking  loudly!

Did you get it? Of course you got it! Now for more information please log on to bbclearningenglish.com.

I've been Dan, you've been fantastic. See you next time, ok? Hello?

What do you mean Titanic was more romantic than Terminator 2? Are you mad? I cried at the end of Terminator 2!

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BBC Masterclass: Subject Verb Agreement 2

context

debate

consider

represent