SUMMARY

Objective 1 : Check the Subject and Verb

S Your speech S She S Hearing your speech S To hear your speech S That you dont invited me V makes me sad.

Noun (N) Pronoun (PRO) Gerund (G) Infinitive (INF) Noun Clause (NC)

Objective 2 : Check Verb Agreement, Tense, and Form

Rules for Subject-Verb Agreement : Singular Subjects 1. When the following words are used as subjects, they are always singular. Some of these words are plural in meaning, but they always require singular verbs. 2. When each or every comes before singular subjects joined by and, a singular verb is required. 3. Introductory it is singular and always followed by a singular verb. 4. Words that come between a subject and its verb do not change the number of the subject. Prepositional phrases often have this position. 5. There, here, and where are never subjects (except in a sentence like this one!). When a sentence begins with one of these words, the subject comes after the verb. Rules for Subject-Verb Agreement : Plural Subjects 6. Subjects joined by and or both . . . and . . . take a plural verb (but see rule 2). 7. Several, many, both, few are plural words and always take a plural verb. 8. Some nouns are always plural in form and always take plural verbs. Rules for Subject-Verb Agreement : Alternatives 9. When subjects are joined by the following structures, the verb must agree with the closer subject.

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10. Many words may be singular or plural depending on what they refer to : None, all, some, any, majority, most, half, etc. When these words are followed by a prepositional phrase, the number of the object of the preposition will determine whether the words are singular or plural. 11. The expression a number of is plural, and the expression the number of is singular. Rules for Subject-Verb Agreement : Unusual Singular Subjects 12. Expressions stating one amount of time, money, weight, volume, etc. are plural in form but take a singular verb. 13. Some words are always plural in form but singular in meaning. These words require singular verbs. 14. Titles of books and movies, even if plural in form, take singular verbs. Rules for Subject-Verb Agreement : Singular and Plural Subjects with the Same Form 15. Collective nouns are usually singular, but may be plural if the members are functioning independently. Watch the pronouns for clues to the singular or plural nature of the subject. Some of these words are class, team, police, committee, audience, family, faculty, etc. 16. Some nouns use the same form for both singular and plural meanings. The pronouns and modifiers with these words will indicate whether they are singular or plural in meaning. Rules for Subject-Verb Agreement : Nationality and Foreign Words 17. Nouns for nationality that end with ese, -ch, or sh may be singular or plural depending on their meaning. Some of these words are Chinese, French, English, etc. When the word refers to a language, it takes a singular verb. When the words refers to the people of the country, it takes a plural verb and is preceded by the article the. 18. English has borrowed words from other languages. Some of these words have unusual singular and plural forms.

Objective 3 : Check for Full Subordination

The Complex Sentence : Key Concepts 1. A complex sentence contains at least two clauses: a main clause and a subordinate clause. 2. A subordinate clause, which is dependent on the main clause for its meaning, may function in a sentence as an adjective, an adverb, or a noun. a. An adjective clause (also called a relative clause) usually begins with a pronoun, such as who, whom, whose, that, which, where, or when, and immediately follows the noun or pronoun which it describes. b. An adverb clause begins with an adverbial conjunction, such as because, although, if, or while, and is frequently found at the beginning or the end of a sentence.

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c. A noun clause begins with the word that or a question word, such as why, what, or how, and can function in a sentence in any of the ways that a noun can.

Objective 4 : Check the Verbals

1. An infinitive is a verbal which a verbal is formed with to and the base form of the verb. Although the word to may be the first word of an infinitive, it also begins many prepositional phrases. 2. An infinitive can function as a noun, an adverb, etc. , but it cannot function as a finite verb in a clause. 3. A gerund is a verbal which is formed by adding the suffix ing to the base form of a verb. A gerund never functions as a verb in sentence. It always functions as a noun. Gerunds should not be confused with ing words that are part of all progressive tense verbs. 4. A verbal adjective can be formed by reducing an adjective clause to a phrase or a word. A oneword verbal adjective goes before the noun it describes. A verbal phrase follows the noun it describes. 5. Like gerunds and infinitives, verbal adjectives are formed from verbs but do not function as finite verbs. Each verbs has two basic verbal adjective forms: the present participle and the past participle. verb: eat verbal adjectives: eating, eaten 6. A verbal adjective can take the form of either the present participle (-ing) or the past participle (-d, -n, -t). When the noun that is being described is actively doing the action, the present participle is used as the verbal adjective. But, when the noun is the receiver of the action and is passively having something done to it, the past participle is used. the burning sun (active) The sun burned the hikers. the sunburned hikers (passive) 7. Subordinate clauses of time beginning with a word such as after, while, or before and subordinate clauses of cause/result beginning with a word such as because, or since, can be reduced to a verbal phrases. This reduction is possible only when the subject of the subordinate clause is the same as the subject of the main clause. 8. Each sentence begins with a verbal phrase with an implied but not started subject. If the implied subject of the verbal phrase is the same as the subject of the main clause, the sentence is correct. If the two subjects are different, the sentence is wrong. wrong: Walking home, a noise frightened the girl. correct: Walking home, the girl was frightened by a noise.

Objective 5 : Check Pronoun Form, Agreement, and Reference

Rules for Pronoun Forms : Rules for the Subject Form Page 3

1. The subject form is used for a subject of a main clause or of a subordinate clause. 2. The subject form is used for pronouns that follow the verb to be. 3. The subject form is used when the subjects of two clauses are being compared. Rules for Pronoun Forms : Rules for the Object Form 4. The object form is used for a pronoun that functions as the object (either direct or indirect) of a verb in a main clause or in a subordinate clause. 5. The object form is used for a pronoun that functions as the object of a preposition. 6. The object form is used when the objects of two clauses are being compared. Rules for Pronoun Forms : Rules for the Possessive Adjective Form 7. The possessive adjective form is used to modify a noun and indicate possession. 8. The possessive adjective form is used when a pronoun modifiers a gerund. Rules for Pronoun Forms : Rules for the Possessive Pronoun Form 9. 10. 11. 12. The possessive pronoun form is used to replace a noun functioning as subject or object. The possessive pronoun form is used with the verb to be to indicate possession. The possessive pronoun form is used after the preposition of meaning possession. The possessive pronoun form is used to replace the second noun when comparing two objects of the same kind that are possessed by different people.

Rules for Pronoun Forms : Rules for the Reflexive Form 13. The reflexive form is used to emphasize the noun or pronoun it refers to. 14. The reflexive form is used as the object of the preposition by to mean that a person does something alone or without help. 15. The reflexive form is used when the object of the sentence or of a preposition is the same person as the subject. Rules for Pronoun Agreement 1. A plural pronoun is used to refer to two words joined by both . . . and or two or more words joined by and. 2. A singular pronoun is used to refer to these indefinite pronouns which are singular in form and require singular verbs. Any of the third person singular pronouns may be used (he, his, she, it, its, etc.) depending on the meaning of the sentence. 3. When two words are joined by either . . . or . . . , neither . . . nor . . . , or not only . . . but also . . . , the pronoun should agree with the part that is closer. 4. Collective nouns which represent a number of persons or things, such as group, team, etc., can be either singular or plural. The verb that goes with the collective noun will indicate whether the writer views the noun as singular or plural in a particular sentence.

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