 In a correctly written sentence, the subject and verb agree, by agree is meant that they match, they match in number. In other words, a singular subject will take a singular verb and plural subjects will take plural verbs. And most students have no problems or problem handling a simple sentence where it is not difficult to make the subject and verb agree or match. Take the simple sentence, my mother works at two jobs, my grandma takes care of my brothers and sisters. Now this is a straightforward sentence. Over here the subject is mother, works is the verb in the first sentence. In the second sentence, my grandma is the subject and takes is the verb. Right now this was a straightforward sentence. In today's lesson, you shall learn about situations that can cause problems with subject verb agreement. Now before we go on to look at subjects and verbs, I would like to revise your tenses and especially the present tense. Just to brush up your knowledge of grammar. Take this sentence, last night I played chess, my friends played cards. Now in this sentence, you must have noticed, this sentence you must have noticed is in the past tense. And the past tense verb is the same for all subjects, whether the subject is singular or plural. However, there is a problem with present tense verbs. The present tense verbs, if you remember, have two forms. Look at this table and you will notice the present tense pattern of the verbs. In the singular it is I work, you work, he works, she works and it works. In the plural it is you work, we work and they work. This was just to revise, to recall your present tense verb forms. Now did you notice that there is an S at the end of the present tense verbs for singular subjects, except for I and you. And there is no S at the end of present tense verbs, I and you and all plural verbs. Now we will do a short exercise for the sake of practice and you choose the correct form of the verb. You have got a number of sentences and in each of them you are given two verbs. You choose the correct form of the verb. Now notice before you do that look at the subject. If the subject is in the singular, you will choose one sort of verb. Take the first sentence. I shall go through it with you so that you are reminded. You remember your subject verb agreement. This is just a sample. The rag picker sort sorts huge bundles of rags. Now the subject in that sentence, the rag picker is in the singular. So the verb form that goes with that subject would be the rag picker sorts huge bundles of rags. In the second sentence the rag pickers huge bundles of rags. It is the same sentence but you notice that over here the subject is in the plural, the rag pickers. So the correct form of the verb, the verb and the subject have to match, have to agree. So over there in number two you would select the rag pickers sort huge bundles of rags. It is the word sort minus the s. Number three, the student listens to music while studying. Again the subject is in the singular, the student and the verb has to agree. The singular subject will take the word listens, the word listen that ends with s. The student listens to music while studying. Number four, same sentence but the subject over here is different. The students listen or listens to music while studying. Again choose the form that goes with the subject, the subject being in the plural. So over here you will choose the word listen. The plural form, the plural subject will take the singular form listen to music while studying. Number five, the worm wriggle or wriggles in the glass tube. Since worm is the subject and it is in the singular. So you know which verb will go with it, which verb form will go with it. And the form that is correct over there is the worm wriggles in the glass tube. Number six, the worms and now here the subject is in the plural so you will have a different form of verb. And the verb will be wriggle, the worms wriggle in the glass tube. Number seven, the gardener whistle or whistles while watering plants. Since the subject is in the singular you will choose the first one. The gardener whistles while watering plants. And the last sentence there the subject is in the plural. So it will be the gardener's whistle while watering plants. Now that was just to brush up your knowledge of subject verb agreement. Now we are going to look at situations which can pose problems in subject verb agreement. We've revised, you can remember what we've gone through right now. And now I'll talk about the situations where students don't know how to tackle subject verb agreement. Now the problem is that in many cases there are many sentences where the subject is close to the verb without the verb, the subject coming first. Now this is a common situation. And the first type of problem situation occurs when the subject and verb do not occur side by side. In most sentences it happens that the subject and verb come close together. But in many situations, because you can have all types of sentences, you find that the subject and the verb do not come together. They do not occur side by side. Take this sample. Most shops on Mall Road are having sales this week. Most shops on Mall Road are having sales this week. Now over there in this sentence, you've got the word shops. Shops is the subject and it's in the plural form. Alright and the verbs are having. Subject and verb do not come together side by side or one after the other. There is in fact a phrase which separates the two and the phrase is on Mall Road. Now in this sentence, it's a prepositional phrase on Mall Road. If you remember in your past lessons I talked about prepositional phrases and a prepositional phrase is a phrase that begins with a preposition. So in this sentence, it's a prepositional phrase on Mall Road which separates the subject shops and the verb are having. Let me remind you again a prepositional phrase is a group of words that begin with a preposition prepositions such as in, on, for, from, to and it usually ends the phrase, the prepositional phrase. It begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or a pronoun. Now remember the subject of the sentence is never part of a prepositional phrase. Let me repeat that again. You must remember that the subject of the sentence is never part of the prepositional phrase. Now we shall go through, quickly go through a set of sentences so that you have some practice in finding the subject of a sentence, of a sentence with a prepositional phrase. Now in this exercise you have to do three things. First you identify the prepositional phrase, then you pick out the subject of the sentence and finally you spot the verb that agrees with the subject, right? You have to do three things. First identify the prepositional phrase, then look for the subject of the sentence and finally you spot the verb, the verb that agrees with the subject. Now take the first sentence. One of my best friends now lives in Dubai. Look at the sentence, pick out the prepositional phrase and I told you, I've given you the hint, the prepositional phrase begins with a preposition and it ends with a noun or a pronoun. Now over there there are two prepositional phrases. In the first sentence, off my best friends, off the phrase begins with a preposition, ends with the noun friends and the other one is in Dubai. In is a preposition, Dubai is a proper noun, right? You've spotted the prepositional phrase. Now which is the subject of the first prepositional phrase? And that is one, one of my best friends. You've spotted the subject, you've spotted the, you've identified the prepositional phrase. Now spot the verb and the verb that agrees with the subject. The subject is in the singular one. So your verb will be lives. Number two, the wafer in the ice cream tastes like sword asked. Now in that sentence, first spot the prepositional phrase and it is in this ice cream, in this ice cream. Use the hints that I've told you. The clues are there, in is a preposition, ice cream, cream, cream is noun. So the prepositional phrase is in this ice cream and the subject of that sentence is wafer. Now the verb, the verb that goes with it is tastes. So wafer subject in this ice cream prepositional phrase and tastes is the verb. The next sentence. Number three, many people in the Indo Park subcontinent speak several languages. Many people in the Indo Park subcontinent speak several languages. The prepositional phrase is in the Indo Park subcontinent. Right? And the subject is, I'm sure you've spotted it, it is people. That's the subject. So people and the verb that goes with it is speak. Number four, no person in my class sleeps through my lecture. No person in my class sleeps through my lecture. And the prepositional phrase is in my class. Subject, person, verb sleeps. And sentence number five, the toddler by the swings is my nephew. The toddler by the swings is my nephew. And the prepositional phrase over there is by the swings. The subject of that sentence is toddler. And the verb is is. So you've got practice in spotting verbs, the prepositional phrases and subjects.