Concord: Subject-Verb Agreement
Hello, welcome to Dissecting Grammar. Today, I will like to discuss a very important topic in grammar. I have titled it as “Concord: Subject-Verb Agreement.” Concord is one of the aspects of English grammar that often poses a serious challenge to non native speakers of English language, especially to Nigerian learners of the language. In fact, it is one of the most confused topics in grammar which, indeed, occupies a central place in the grammar of English. One, therefore, needs to master it properly. What, then, is “concord”? Concord has to do with agreement between parts of a sentence. For instance, if a subject consists of a noun phrase and it is singular, e.g. ‘the boy’ then, the verb phrase in the same clause also has to be in the singular form, e.g. ‘hits’ . So you can now have: 1. The boy hits the table. Not 2. The boy hit the table. 3. The boys hit the table. Not 4. The boys hits the table. I want you to know that plural verbs do not appear wi