Helping verbs
The most common English verbs are the verb to be and its forms (am, is, are, was, were), do, and the helping verbs have, has, had. These verbs also change form when used with nouns or with third person pronouns
| Singulars | Plurals |
|---|---|
| does has is [present] and was [past] | do have are[present] and were [past] |
These can be especially tricky when used in contractions with pronouns or with not.
Sometimes students confuse plural nouns with possessive nouns. Plural nouns normally end in "s" while possessive nouns use an apostrophe. Remember, too, the difference between nouns showing possession and pronouns showing possession. Nouns which have apostrophes indicate possession; pronouns which have apostrophes indicate contractions.
| Possession | Contractions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nouns | Pronouns | Nouns | Pronouns | |
| John's house | his house | he's (he is) | ||
In addition to problems with pronouns used in contractions, there are also other problems with subject/verb agreement when the subject is a pronoun.
Collective nouns
Some nouns represent a group as a single entity. For instance, the word class refers to a group of students as a single group and not as the individuals that make up the group.
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The class is listening.
The class members are listening.
Some collective nouns are always plural. For instance, the word police is used to refer to police officers and not to a single police officer.
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The police are coming.
The police officer is coming.
Indefinite pronouns
Although many students think of some of the following words as plurals (because they refer to a group), they are all actually singular.
| one | body | thing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Every | everyone | everybody | everything |
| Some | someone | somebody | something |
| Any | anyone | anybody | anything |
| No | no one | nobody | nothing |
There/Here is/was and There/Here are/were
When a sentence begins with these phrases, the subject of the sentence is the thing or things that are there or here. For instance,
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There is a dog which is dead in the road.
(What is on the road? What is there? Answer: a dog is)There are a dog and a cat which are dead on the road.
(What is on the road? What is there? Answer: a dog and a cat are)
The best solution is often to eliminate the there phrase by making the thing(s) that is(are) there the subject of the sentence and removing a relative pronoun to free a verb to be the verb in the new independent clause or changing a verbal into a verb.
-
[There is]A dog [which] is dead in the road.
[There are] Many things happen[ing] in Sweetwater.