Agreement

Agreement Errors

image of two wooden figures shaking hands. one figure is green and other is yellow Common errors in writing include the dreaded agreement errors. Every time you construct a sentence, the subject must agree with the verb, and the antecedent must agree with the pronoun.

Singular Subject

If you have a singular subject, the verb will also be singular.

Example: She is going to the mall.

Plural Subject

If the subject is plural, then the verb will be plural: They are going to the mall.

Don't be confused, but singular verbs end in -s, and plural verbs do not.

Example: She likes to paint in her free time.

You wouldn't say: She like to paint in her free time.

On the contrary, you would say: They like to paint in their free time as compared to They likes to paint in their free time.

Pronouns

Pronouns must agree with their antecedents as well. An antecedent is just the word or phrase that the pronoun has replaced. If the antecedent is singular, the pronoun must be singular as well. If the antecedent is plural, the pronoun must be plural.

Example: The student is required to complete his or her own work. Student is singular; therefore, the pronoun must be singular as well. If you were to write the following, you would have a pronoun/antecedent error: The student is required to do their own work. "Student" refers to just one person, but "their" refers to multiple people.

In-Person

It is also important that your antecedent and pronoun agree in person. This means if you are writing in 3^rd person, you write in 3^rd person throughout your entire sentence or paper. You don't want to switch between 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd person.

Incorrect: When a person comes to class, you should have your homework ready.

Correct: When a person comes to class, he or she should have his or her homework ready.

The first sentence starts out in 3^rd person but switches to 2^nd person once the pronoun "you" is introduced. "A person" is 3^rd person; "you" is 2^nd person.

Writing: Subject-verb agreement Harder example: Watch Sal work through a harder grammar item testing subject-verb agreement.

IMAGES CREATED BY GAVS OR OPENSOURCE