February 10, 2012
By Mary W. Ng
Subject-verb agreement errors are common in writing, and they reflect poorly on the writer. If you do not want to make any such error, you must not only understand the mechanics of subject-verb agreement but also be aware of some special cases of subject-verb agreement.
Today I'd like to talk about two cases of subject-verb agreement, both involving the pronoun each.
Look at these two sentences:
• Each of you are a part of history.
• Each of you is a part of history.
Google shows 85 million results for the search term 'each of you are' and 13 million results for 'each of you is'. So, who is correct, the majority or the minority?
Well, the subject is the pronoun phrase each of you; the simple subject is the pronoun each (meaning each one), which takes a singular verb. In case you forgot or didn't know, the simple subject is the noun or pronoun that remains when the subject is stripped of other words. The majority is not always right.
Now look at these two sentences:
• They each have something special.
• They each has something special.
Google reports 34 million results for the search term 'they each have' and 11 million results for 'they each has'. So, who is correct this time, the majority or the minority?
Well, this time the majority is correct, but there is a reason for it. The subject they is plural and takes a plural verb. The pronoun each has no effect on the number of the subject; each functions as an appositive, giving additional information about the subject.
When you proofread your writing to check for subject-verb agreement errors, remember that the verb must agree with the subject or the simple subject. In most cases, interrupting words, that is, words between the subject and the verb, are mere distractions.
Mary W. Ng is the author of two grammar e-books, Focus on Grammar: Subject-Verb Agreement and Focus on Grammar: Parallel Constructions. Sample reads are available at www.aimpublishing.com. The website also provides information on spelling rules of verbs, word usage and grammatical errors.
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August 26, 2011
Either there's a collective ignorance spreading or people are afraid to use the pronoun me to refer to themselves.
I hear a lot of people say dumb, ungrammatical things like "between him and I" and "Sally and myself went downtown."
The first-person accusative form of the singular pronoun I is and always has been me.
One cannot substitute a reflexive pronoun such as myself for a regular pronoun such as I or me. It has to be coupled with one of those to reflect upon it.
For instance, "Sally prefers spaghetti, but I myself would rather eat lasagna." You can leave out myself in this sentence if you like, but you cannot substitute it for I.
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July 24, 2011
The best thing about old age, I've recently discovered, is that you don't have to worry about your lifelong fears anymore. They all come true, so you can leave your paranoia and nightmares behind you. But…a big but…you have to deal with the reality of your fears-come-true. Ah, life.
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December 17, 2010
A Marist poll (don't they have better things to do?) has revealed that Americans find whatever to be the most annoying word used in everyday English.
Nearly 39 percent of 1,020 Americans questioned in the survey deemed it the most irritating word, followed by like with 28 percent and the phrase you know what I mean at 15 percent.
I guess whatever can be viewed as dismissive if not downright disdainful depending on the manner in which it's spoken.
However, I nominate awesome, which is overused, abused, and basically meaningless. It's more like a grunt than a statement.
Whatever, I guess it doesn't matter what I think.
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August 23, 2010
(Stolen shamelessly–and corrected grammatically–from a Reuters report)
Vuvuzela (the ubiquitous plastic trumpet ever-present at the recently concluded World Cup) is among 2,000 new words and phrases added to the third edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English, published on Thursday, Aug. 20. The dictionary is compiled from the analysis of two billion words used in everything from novels to Internet message boards.
The credit crunch features heavily in this year's additions, with terms such as "overleveraged," having taken on too much debt, and "quantitative easing," the introduction of new money in to the money supply by the central bank, among those included.
"Staycation," a holiday spent in one's home country, and "bargainous," costing less than usual, also reflect the hot topic of belt-tightening among consumers during the economic downturn.
The rise of "social media," itself a new term, has spawned several additions, including "defriend," removing someone from a list of friends or contacts on a social networking site, and "tweetup," a meeting organized via posts on Twitter. Other words include:
- Bromance: a close but non-sexual relationship between two men
- Buzzkill: a person or thing that has a depressing or dispiriting effect
- Cheeseball: lacking taste, style or originality
- Chillax: calm down and relax
- Frenemy: a person with whom one is friendly despite a fundamental dislike or rivalry
- Interweb: the Internet
- Wardrobe malfunction: an instance of a person accidentally exposing an intimate part of their body as result of an article of clothing slipping out of position.
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July 9, 2010
If the blogosphere and gritty online "citizen journalists" hadn't already exposed the dearth and death of mainstream journalism (and its crass manipulation of reality), then last night's ESPN special called, if I recall correctly, "The Decision," certainly put the final nail in the coffin.
I'm referring, of course, to that overblown, downright insulting one-hour TV special on basketball star LeBron James's decision on where to play next season.
Not only did James expose himself as a hallow, shallow, unable-to-think big nothing, but interlocutor Jim Gray cemented his place in journalistic history as perhaps the biggest ethical and professional sell-out (I wanted to use the "w" word, so go ahead and fill in the final four letters of that word) of all time.
If I were still in journalism school (thankfully, that was decades ago), I'd drop out and pursue a more honorable career in, say, propaganda, er, public relations. At least in that profession you're expected to pimp for others and get paid for it.
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June 16, 2010
The most celebrated novel of the 20th century, Ulysses, and its author, James Joyce, are celebrated each June 16 on what's called "Bloomsday."
The "Bloom" part comes from the central character in Ulysses, who was named Leopold Bloom, and the date from the day in which the novel's 24-hour narration takes place, June 16, 1904.
Bloomsday is celebrated widely in Dublin, setting of the novel, and truly in spots around the world wherever there are fans of Joyce and his writings.
The Dublin festivities include pub crawls, which tend to incline me toward celebrating the occasion in that Irish city.
Maybe I can make it there in 2011.
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February 23, 2010
Turns out our neighbors to the north have quite a (sarcastic) sense of humor about them.
You have to read the article and then at least the first ten comments to get the true joy out of this reading experience (read Rhino especially):
BEWARE THE KILLER HOT DOGS
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February 2, 2010
Who will save us?
Who will save book publishing?
What will save the newspapers?
What means 'save'?
If by save you mean, "what will keep things just as they are?" then the answer is nothing will. It's over.
If by save you mean, "who will keep the jobs of the pressmen and the delivery guys and the squadrons of accountants and box makers and transshippers and bookstore buyers and assistant editors and coffee boys," then the answer is still nothing will. Not the Kindle, not the iPad, not an act of Congress.
We need to get past this idea of saving, because the status quo is leaving the building, and quickly. Not just in print of course, but in your industry too.
If you want to know who will save the joy of reading something funny, or the leverage of acting on fresh news or the importance of allowing yourself to be changed by something in a book, then don't worry. It doesn't need saving. In fact, this is the moment when we can figure out how to increase those benefits by a factor of ten, precisely because we don't have to spend a lot of resources on the saving part.
Every revolution destroys the average middle first and most savagely.
Stolen shamelessly without permission from Seth Godin's Blog. Read this and mull it over many times and prepare for the future.
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