Exercise - Subject-verb agreement
Introduction
In academic writing special care is needed to ensure that your verb agrees with the
subject. This is called subject-verb agreement.
Rule: When the noun or pronoun, as subject of the sentence, is singular, the verb
that refers to it is singular; when the noun or pronoun is plural, the verb is plural.
Definitions
Subject The subject acts as the ‘doer’ or agent of an action.
Noun A noun refers to a person, thing or animal.
A pronoun is a word which substitutes for a noun or a noun phrase.
Pronoun
Pronouns include words such as I, you, it, their, ours and mine.
Verb A verb refers to an action or state.
Singular When a noun indicates one only, it is singular.
Plural When a noun indicates more than one, it is plural.
Further information
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Exercise - Subject-verb agreement
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Exercise A
Underline the subject of each sentence
Highlight the correct pronoun, noun or verb
Example: A high number of Applied Social Studies (ASS) students are interested in
improving their writing skills and have decided to continue joining the writing skills
programme delivered by the PAD Team.
1. Sociology students (is, are) all required to understand the differences
between quantitative and qualitative research methods.
2. Some people argue that teenagers act purely in response to (her, their)
peers.
3. Marx and Weber (observe, observes) the economic aspect of stratification.
4. The two articles (offer, offers) contrasting arguments on the underlying
causes of poverty.
5. Most measures of socioeconomic status (include, includes) income or
education.
Exercise - Subject-verb agreement
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Exercise B
Underline the subject of each sentence
Highlight the correct verb tense when referring to the same time period as
demonstrated by the highlighted word
Example: That distinguished sociology professor has written a well-known article on
applied social studies. Not to mention, her arguments on human behaviour have
been quoted extensively.
1. It is not easy to define what it (means, meant) to live in post-modern society.
2. The Investigating Social Life handbook outlines the aims of the unit, learning
development and core learning outcome and the teaching programme.
Further it (covers, covered) the key texts and other recommended reading as
well as assessment tasks and referencing guidelines.
3. Many people are fascinated by sociology because it (studies, studied)
human social behaviour.
4. When emigrating to another society people need to follow the written rules.
In addition to that, they (are required, were required) to respect the unwritten
norms of that society.
5. The students will work on their enquiry skills through assessment techniques
focussed on gaining knowledge and understanding of methodology and of
social enquiry. They (will, would) also need to access a range of online and
off-line sources from the academic literature on research methodology,
social theory and social enquiry.
Exercise - Subject-verb agreement
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Answers - Exercise A
1. Sociology students are all required to understand the differences between
quantitative and qualitative research methods.
2. Some people argue that teenagers act purely in response to their peers.
3. Marx and Weber observe the economic aspect of stratification.
4. The two articles offer contrasting arguments on the underlying causes of
poverty.
5. Most measures of socioeconomic status include income or education.
Answers - Exercise B
1. It is not easy to define what it means to live in post-modern society.
2. The Investigating Social Life handbook outlines the aims of the unit, learning
development and core learning outcome and the teaching programme. Further
it covers the key texts and other recommended reading as well as assessment
tasks and referencing guidelines.
3. Many people are fascinated by sociology because it studies human social
behaviour.
4. When emigrating to another society people need to follow the written rules. In
addition to that, they are required to respect the unwritten norms of that society.
5. The students will work on their enquiry skills through assessment techniques
focussed on gaining knowledge and understanding of methodology and of
social enquiry. They will also need to access a range of online and off-line
sources from the academic literature on research methodology, social theory
and social enquiry.
Exercise - Subject-verb agreement
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