Grammar Smart(3)（在线收听）

Male: I think we better ¹⁾review.

Female: Yup good idea.

Male: OK, the most important rule, the one that all the others serve to protect and ²⁾execute is that verbs and their subject must agree. Singular subjects get singular verbs and plural subjects get plural verbs.

Female: Right. “He goes,” that’s singular. “They go,” that’s plural. A good ³⁾rule of thumb is that if the subject is clearly plural as in “the flowers the voodoo dolls or the Flying Walendas, or two singular subjects are connected by “and” stick with plural verbs and you’ll do fine.

Male: The rules that are broken most often are those that say the verb should be singular even when it sounds like it should be plural.

Female: Rule number one: When using either...or, neither...nor or nor to connect singular subjects the verb stays singular to agree with the most important or primary subject.

Male: Examples: “Craig or Matthew is going to feed Cleo.” “Neither Cathy nor Alicia was willing to discipline the writer.” “When it comes to well defined pectorals, neither Michael nor Paul compares to Julian.”

Female: Rule number two: Subjects connected by “and” are plural, no matter how they started out.

Male: Examples: “Jack and Jill are naughty children.” “Jenny and her friends are spending the night in jail.”

Female: “Even together Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennet are no match for Mel Torme.”

Male: Well here’s a question for you. What happens when you’re using a conjunction like “neither” which separates the subjects but one subject is singular and the other is plural?

Female: Ah ha! Good question. Rule number three just like our earlier example which contained two singular subjects which are ⁴⁾conjugated differently, “Rucia and I,” the verb agrees with which ever subject is closest.

Male: Example: The two subjects are Bill a singular...

Female: Oh no not Bill again.

Male: All right we’ll use someone else. Hillary, how about Hillary?

Female: Better.

Male: Good. If one of the subjects, Hillary is singular and the other the servants is plural, and they are separated by a conjunction which keeps them apart, then the verb gets the closest of the two subjects as in “Neither Hillary nor her servants were able to move the secretary’s limp body from the bathtub.”

Female: And were they ⁵⁾switched it would be... “Neither her servants nor Hillary was able to move the secretary’s limp body from the bathtub.”

Male: Rule number four: Expressions that imply an addition to the subject such as “as well as, including, together with, or with” may seem to change a singular subject to plural they don’t.

Female: “Tom along with Dick and Harry is going on vacation.”Get it?

Male: Got it.

Female: Good. CE

21、巧学语法（三）

男：我想我们还是回顾一下。

女：嗯，好主意！

男：好吧。最重要的一条原则，也是其它原则都得严守不逾的，就是动词与其主语必须保持一致。单数主语对应单数形式动词，复数主语对应复数形式动词。

女：是的。“He goes”是单数，“They go”是复数。有一条很有用的经验，就是如果主语明显是复数，例如“the flowers”“the voodoo dolls”或“the Flying Walendas”，亦或者是两个单数主语用“and”连接，牢记用动词的复数形式，不会错。

男：违背这一规律的原则，通常规定了一些动词是单数，尽管它听上去像是复数。

女：第一条原则：当我们使用“either…or…，neither…nor…或nor”来连接单数主语的时候，其谓语动词应为单数形式，并与其中最重要或最首要的主语保持一致。

男：例如：“Craig or Matthew is going to feed Cleo.”“Neither Cathy nor Alicia was willing to discipline the writer.”“When it comes to well defined pectorals, neither Michael nor Paul compares to Julian.”

女：第二条原则：主语用“and”连接，在任何情况下都代表复数。

男：例如：“Jack and Jill are naughty children.”“Jenny and her friends are spending the night in jail.”

女：“Even together Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennet are no match for Mel Torme.”

男：不过，我想问你一个问题：当你使用“neither”一类的连词来把主语分开，其中一个是单数，另一个是复数，那该怎么办？

女∶啊，哈！问得好！第三条原则正如同我们在前面给出的例子，句中包含了两个单数主语，但是分别对动词的形式有着不同的要求，“Rucia and I”，此时谓语动词与最近的一方保持一致。

男∶如∶这两个主语分别是Bill，一个单数主语……

女∶噢，拜托，别再用Bill这个词啦。

男∶好吧，我们换一个人名。希拉里，希拉里如何？

女∶好多了。

男∶好。如果其中一个主语，希拉里是单数；另一个主语，the servants是复数，而且他们被一个连词分开，这时谓语动词随两者中近的一方一致。例如“Neither Hillary nor her servants were able to move the secretary’s limp body from the bathtub.”

女∶那么把它们的位置交换则变成了……“Neither her servants nor Hillary was able to move the secretary’s limp body from the bathtub.”

男：第四条原则：有些表达方式暗含了除去主语之外的意思，比如“as well as, including, together with 或 with”，它们看上去像是在把单数主语转变为复数，其实不然。

女：“Tom along with Dick and Harry is going on vacation.”明白了吗？

男：明白。

女：好样的。CE