英语语法：91 Subject-Verb Agreement

Grammar Girl here.

Today's topic is subject-verb agreement, and I'm doing something a little different. This week I have a guest writer for the show, my long-time copy editor Bonnie Trenga, the author of The Curious Case of the Misplaced Modifier.

Oh, and I have to correct an error. Last week in one of the Web addresses I said, "Backslash, backslash," which many of you told me is just plain wrong. So I apologize. There are no backslashes in URLs.

Now, let's learn now to boost your immunity¹ to the illness that kills your credibility: subject-verb inflammatory disease.

Good grammar instincts never die—even when the grammarian is lying dazed on a hospital gurney. As I was being rolled to the OR early in my copy-editing career, a grammar error jumped out and got me. When I pointed² a weak finger and gasped³ sharply, my husband must have thought I needed more morphine. A blue sign dared to warn: “The use of cell phones and pagers are prohibited.” “Oh,” thought my relieved hubby. “Just a subject-verb agreement problem.”

I don’t have to look far to find agreement mistakes, even when I’m not in copy-editor mode. I was on hold for my doctor’s office the other day and winced⁴ when a sincere voice requested, “Your patience and consideration is very much appreciated.” I did not appreciate that at all, and my patience was as sore as my throat.

I suppose I should go easy on these misinformed medical types. After all, they’re interested in healthy organs, not healthy grammar. If you’re a writer type, though, you don’t want to come down with disagreement-itis. This debilitating⁵ ailment⁶ afflicts⁷ even the best writer, so you’re not immune. If you’re in a hurry, you don’t pay enough attention, and that’s when disagreement-itis strikes. It’s a deadly disease because it kills your credibility and makes your readers feel ill. To avoid the threat of a malpractice suit, you need to start exploring the innards of your sentences—stat!

Before you can do surgery on your writing, though, you need to brush up on your subject-verb anatomy⁸. A singular subject agrees with a singular verb, and a plural⁹ subject agrees with a plural verb. A singular subject involves a single item or person: “the rolling gurney” or “a surgical¹⁰ patient.” A plural subject involves more than one item or person: “some badly written hospital signs” or “the shocked copy editors.”

Your subject-verb agreement is most likely fine when the subject is close to the verb, as it is here: “The rolling gurney is about to crash into the unwary sign writer!” The singular subject “gurney” pairs up with the singular verb “is.” I’m certain, though, that you sometimes commit a ghastly grammar goof¹¹ when the subject is far from the verb. Be especially careful of compound subjects, which contain an “and.” Amnesiac¹² writers forget about the first part of their subject, so they use the wrong verb. This was certainly the problem on Doctor Doofus’ phone system; the compound subject “patience and consideration” belongs with “are,” not “is.”

Now that you’re awake we can examine another reason you might be giving your readers an ulcer¹³. The problem we’re dealing¹⁴ with here is stuff—and, mind you, “stuff” is a real medical term. This sneaky stuff distracts you into using the wrong verb. The troublemakers¹⁵ that come between your subject and verb include prepositional phrases (such as “in the operating room”) and “that,” “who” or “which” clauses. Let’s look back at our friend the hospital sign that read "The use of cell phones and pagers are prohibited." The prepositional phrase “of cell phones and pagers” is in the way. The subject of that sentence is “use,” which is singular, so the verb should be “is.” And that is that.

Have you been forgetting to get regular agreement checkups like our errant sign writers? I guess I’ll forgive you—if you promise to perform a mistake-ectomy immediately. It’s actually quite easy. Simply find your subject and circle just the word (or words) that form the subject—and ignore everything else. Then, underline the verb and check if subject and verb match. If they don’t, berate¹⁶ yourself for a few minutes and then fix the problem. Take this sentence: “Doctor Doofus, who needs a new phone message, and Nurse Nincompoop, his fiancée, are eloping tonight.” The subject is… what? Ah, yes, circle both “Doctor Doofus” and “Nurse Nincompoop”--the plural subjects. Forget about the erroneous phone message and the lucky fiancée. Next, underline “are eloping.” It’s a match! Plural subjects--plural verb.The wedding can commence, and no one will have a heart attack.

All these circles and underlines might seem tedious, but please mark up your pages until your subject-verb inflammatory disease is cured. Both you and your readers will feel much better if you examine your work thoroughly¹⁷ and get rid of careless errors. My surgeon certainly was thorough; he triple-checked that he didn’t leave any surgical instruments in me. Thanks, Doc. Your patience and consideration are much appreciated! You probably don’t have to check your work three times—once should be sufficient; twice if you write hospital signs for a living.

I hope you enjoyed my mixing it up a bit by bringing Bonnie Trenga in as a guest writer. This piece originally appeared in Writer's Digest, and if you enjoyed it, you can find more of Bonnie's work at.... And, as I said, she is also the author of The Curious Case of the Misplaced Modifier, where she takes a similarly fun approach to grammar and which you can buy from a link on quickanddirtytips.com.

Questions and comments for me go to... or the voicemail line at 206-338-GIRL. You can also read the full transcript¹⁸ of this podcast at..., where you can leave comments and find the other great shows including Money Girl, The Mighty¹⁹ Mommy, and The Get-It-Done Guy.

That's all. Thanks for listening.

1 immunity   

n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权

参考例句：

• The law gives public schools immunity from taxation.法律免除公立学校的纳税义务。
• He claims diplomatic immunity to avoid being arrested.他要求外交豁免以便避免被捕。

2 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

3 gasped   

v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要

参考例句：

• She gasped at the wonderful view. 如此美景使她惊讶得屏住了呼吸。
• People gasped with admiration at the superb skill of the gymnasts. 体操运动员的高超技艺令人赞叹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 winced   

赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He winced as the dog nipped his ankle. 狗咬了他的脚腕子，疼得他龇牙咧嘴。
• He winced as a sharp pain shot through his left leg. 他左腿一阵剧痛疼得他直龇牙咧嘴。

5 debilitating   

a.使衰弱的

参考例句：

• The debilitating disease made him too weak to work. 这个令他衰弱的病，使他弱到没有办法工作。
• You may soon leave one debilitating condition or relationship forever. 你即将永远地和这段霉运说拜拜了。

6 ailment   

n.疾病，小病

参考例句：

• I don't have even the slightest ailment.我什么毛病也没有。
• He got timely treatment for his ailment.他的病得到了及时治疗。

7 afflicts   

使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Level 3-Afflicts a target with the Curse of the Silent. 三级-用静默诅咒折磨一个目标。
• Level 1-Afflicts a target with the Curse of the Silent. 一级-用静默诅咒折磨一个目标。

8 anatomy   

n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织

参考例句：

• He found out a great deal about the anatomy of animals.在动物解剖学方面，他有过许多发现。
• The hurricane's anatomy was powerful and complex.对飓风的剖析是一项庞大而复杂的工作。

9 plural   

n.复数；复数形式；adj.复数的

参考例句：

• Most plural nouns in English end in's '.英语的复数名词多以s结尾。
• Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。

10 surgical   

adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的

参考例句：

• He performs the surgical operations at the Red Cross Hospital.他在红十字会医院做外科手术。
• All surgical instruments must be sterilised before use.所有的外科手术器械在使用之前，必须消毒。

11 goof   

v.弄糟；闲混；n.呆瓜

参考例句：

• We goofed last week at the end of our interview with singer Annie Ross.上周我们采访歌手安妮·罗斯，结果到快结束时犯了个愚蠢的错误。
• You will never be good students so long as you goof around.如果你们成天游手好闲，就永远也成不了好学生。

12 amnesiac   

记忆缺失的，（引起） 遗忘（症）的

参考例句：

• Synopsis: An amnesiac spy awakens in a world overrun by zombies. 一个记忆缺失的特工在一个僵尸遍野的世界苏醒。
• These memories can generally be recovered through psychotherapy or after the amnesiac state has ended. 实际上，这些记忆并没有真正丧失，在经过心理治疗或病愈之后，这些记忆还可以恢复。

13 ulcer   

n.溃疡，腐坏物

参考例句：

• She had an ulcer in her mouth.她口腔出现溃疡。
• A bacterium is identified as the cause for his duodenal ulcer.一种细菌被断定为造成他十二指肠溃疡的根源。

14 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

15 troublemakers   

n.惹是生非者，捣乱者( troublemaker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was employed to chuck out any troublemakers. 他受雇把捣乱者赶走。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She had automatically labelled the boys as troublemakers. 她不假思索地认定这些男孩子是捣蛋鬼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 berate   

v.训斥，猛烈责骂

参考例句：

• He feared she would berate him for his forgetfulness.他担心，由于健忘又要挨她的训斥了。
• She might have taken the opportunity to berate scientists for their closed minds.她也可能会去利用这个机会斥责那些抱成见的科学家。

17 thoroughly   

adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地

参考例句：

• The soil must be thoroughly turned over before planting.一定要先把土地深翻一遍再下种。
• The soldiers have been thoroughly instructed in the care of their weapons.士兵们都系统地接受过保护武器的训练。

18 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

19 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。