Exercise 6

Add a simple sentence to the following unfinished ideas to make complex sentences.

1. when David fell in love

2. before I get a job

3. while I am on holidays

4. after I finish this class.

Agreement

When you write a good sentence, you need to make sure that everything agrees with everything else. Your sentence will agree if

1. the number of the subject and verb agree

   If you use a singular (one) subject, your verb must also be singular or

   If you use a plural (more than one) subject, your verb must also be plural.

2. if there is more than one verb in a sentence, they all agree.

Subject - Verb Agreement

In any good sentence, the subject and verb must agree in number and person. Singular subjects need singular verbs and plural subjects need plural verbs. This can be confusing because we usually think about adding an "s" to make something plural. This may be true of subjects. The opposite it true for most verbs. The singular form of many verbs ends in "s". For example:

The kid runs to the store. (singular)

The kids run to the store. (plural)

Sometimes it's hard to know exactly what the subject of the sentence is. You need to know this to know what kind of verb to use. Look at the following sentences. The subjects and verbs are in underlined.

My boss, who is a great speaker, gave a speech at lunch yesterday.

The problem of high unemployment in the disabled community and what to do about it was discussed at the last meeting.