tailieunhanh - Understanding and using english grammar part 16

Manhattanville College, School of Education; Marjorie Friedman, Eckerd College, ELS Language Center; Natalie Gast, Customized Language Skills Training; Anna Krauthammer, Touro College; Russell HirschTouro College; Stacy Hagen, Edmonds Community College, Intensive ESL; Lida Baker, University of California, Los-Angeles; Susan Kash-Brown^ Southeast Community College. | 6-5 SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT SOME IRREGULARITIES SINGULAR VERB a The United States is big. b The Philippines consists of more than 7 000 islands. c The United Nations has its headquarters in New York City. d Sears is a department store. Sometimes a proper noun that ends in -s is singular. In the examples if the noun is changed to a pronoun the singular pronoun it is used not the plural pronoun they because the noun is singular. In a The United States it not they . e The news is interesting. News is singular. f Mathematics is easy for her. Physics is easy for her too. Fields of study that end in -ics require singular verbs. g Diabetes is an illness. Certain illnesses that end in -s are singular diabetes measles mumps rabies rickets shingles. h Eight hours of sleep is enough. i Ten dollars is too much to pay. j Five thousand miles is too far to travel. Expressions of time money and distance usually require a singular verb. k Two and two is four. Two and two equals four. Two plus two is equals four. 1 Five times five is twenty-five. Arithmetic expressions require singular verbs. PLURALVERB m Those people are from Canada. n The police have been called. o Cattle are domestic animals. People police and cattle do not end in -s but are plural nouns and require plural verbs. SINGULAR VERB PLURAL VERB p English is spoken in many countries. r Chinese is his native language. q The English drink tea. s The Chinese have an interesting history. In p English language. In q The English people from England. Some nouns of nationality that end in -sh -ese and -ch can mean either language or people . English Spanish Chinese Japanese Vietnamese Portuguese French. t The poor have many problems. u The rich get richer. A few adjectives can be preceded by the and used as a plural noun without final -s to refer to people who have that quality. Other examples the young the elderly the living the dead the blind the deaf the disabled The word people has a final -s peoples only when it is used