English for Academic

Purposes
Meeting 11
Basic Grammar Points
ignasia_y@ukrida.ac.id
 Subtopics

1. S-V Agreement
2. Punctuation
3. Capitalization
 Learning Objectives

Able to write grammatically acceptable

sentences fulfilling minimum requirements
 Subject - Verb Agreement

1. A sentence should always have a

subject and a verb
2. The verb should always in
agreement with the subject
 Subject Verb Agreement
Clouds gathered. The sun dimmed. The sky
darkened. The wind blew. Dogs ran and growled.
Birds cried. Lightning flashed. Thunder sounded.
Trees fell.

Minimal sentence noun + verb

Subject Verb Agreement
Noun Verb
Clouds Gathered
The sun Dimmed
The sky Darkened
The wind Blew
Dogs Ran and growled
Birds Cried
Lightning Flashed
Thunder Sounded
Trees Fell
 Subject Verb Agreement

Basic Principle:
Singular subjects need singular verbs; plural
subjects need plural verbs.
 Subject Verb Agreement

The indefinite pronouns anyone,

everyone, someone, no one, nobody are
always singular and, therefore, require
singular verbs.
Examples:
Everyone has done his or her homework.

Somebody has left her purse.

 Subject Verb Agreement

Some indefinite pronouns such as all, some

are singular or plural depending on what they're
referring to. (Is the thing referred to countable or
not?) Be careful choosing a verb to accompany
such pronouns.
Examples: Countable Noun

Some of the beads are missing.

Some of the water is gone.
Uncountable Noun
 Subject Verb Agreement

Each is often followed by a prepositional

phrase ending in a plural word (Each of the
cars), thus confusing the verb choice. Each,
too, is always singular and requires a singular
verb.
Examples:
Each of the students is responsible for doing his or her
work in the library.
Don't let the word "students" confuse you; the subject is each and
each is always singular Each is responsible.
 Subject Verb Agreement

Phrases such as together with, as well as, and along

with are not the same as and. The phrase
introduced by as well as or along with will modify
the earlier word (mayor in this case), but it does not
compound the subjects (as the word and would
do).
Examples:
The mayor as well as his brothers is going to prison.

The mayor and his brothers are going to jail.

 Subject Verb Agreement

The pronouns neither and either are

singular and require singular verbs even
though they seem to be referring, in a
sense, to two things.
Examples:
Neither of the two traffic lights is working.

Which shirt do you want for Christmas?

Either is fine with me.
 Subject Verb Agreement

The conjunction or does not conjoin (as and does):

when nor or or is used the subject closer to the
verb determines the number of the verb. Whether
the subject comes before or after the verb doesn't
matter; the proximity determines the number.

Examples:
Either my father or my brothers are going to sell the house.

Neither my brothers nor my father is going to sell the

house.
 Subject Verb Agreement

The words there and here are never

subjects.

Examples:
There are two reasons [plural subject] for this.
There is no reason for this. There is no reason for this.

Here are two apples.

 Subject Verb Agreement

Verbs in the present tense for third-person,

singular subjects (he, she, it and anything those
words can stand for) have s-endings. Other
verbs do not add s-endings.

Example:

He loves and she loves and they love_ and . . . .

 Subject Verb Agreement

Sometimes modifiers will get betwen a

subject and its verb, but these modifiers
must not confuse the agreement between
the subject and its verb.

Example:

The mayor, who has been convicted along with his four
brothers on four counts of various crimes but who also
seems, like a cat, to have several political lives, is finally
going to jail.
 Subject Verb Agreement
Sometimes nouns take weird forms and can fool us into
thinking they're plural when they're really singular and
vice-versa. Words such as glasses, pants, pliers, and
scissors are regarded as plural (and require plural verbs)
unless they're preceded the phrase pair of (in which
case the word pair becomes the subject).
Examples:
My glasses were on the bed.

My pants were torn.

A pair of plaid trousers is in the closet.

 Subject Verb Agreement
Some words end in -s and appear to be plural but are
really singular and require singular verbs.

Examples:
The news from the front is bad.
Measles is a dangerous disease for pregnant women.
On the other hand, some words ending in -s refer to a single
thing but are nonetheless plural and require a plural verb.
Examples:
My assets were wiped out in the depression.
The average worker's earnings have gone up dramatically.
 Subject Verb Agreement
Fractional expressions such as half of, a part of, a percentage of, a
majority of are sometimes singular and sometimes plural, depending
on the meaning. (The same is true, of course, when all, any, more,
most and some act as subjects.) Sums and products of mathematical
processes are expressed as singular and require singular verbs. The
expression "more than one" (oddly enough) takes a singular verb:
"More than one student has tried this."
Examples:
Some of the voters are still angry.
A large percentage of the older population is voting against
her.
Two-fifths of the troops were lost in the battle.
Two-fifths of the vineyard was destroyed by fire.
 Subject Verb Agreement
If your sentence compounds a positive and a negative
subject and one is plural, the other singular, the verb
should agree with the positive subject.

Examples:
The department members but not the chair have decided
not to teach on Valentine's Day.
It is not the faculty members but the president who
decides this issue.
It was the speaker, not his ideas, that has provoked the
students to riot.
 Subject Verb Agreement

Examples:
Forty percent of the students are in favor of changing the
policy.
Forty percent of the student body is in favor of changing
the policy.

Two and two is four.

Four times four divided by two is eight.
 Subject Verb Agreement
Pay attention to the subject / noun
First person / second / third
I do
You do
He does
Singular / plural
I do
She does
Mary and Joseph do
Present / Past
We eat
We ate
 Subject Verb Agreement
1. Both the teachers and the students ______
are
reading.
is
2. Joseph _______ reading.
3. Tim and I ________
are vacationing.
4. My cat _______
is sleeping.
5. You and me _______
are dating.
 Verb groups
Make sure that the verbs in questions and
negative constructions have the correct form.

He does not likes ice cream.

 Articles
1. If you use a singular countable noun, make sure
that you put a or the or a similar word before
the noun.
He put book on chair.

2. If you use an uncountable noun or plural

countable noun, make sure that you do not put a
before the noun.
He gave me an information.
3. If you use the name of a person, town, or country,
make sure that you do not use a or the in front
of it.
He goes to the Jakarta.
 Punctuation

1. Period / Full Stop ( . )

2. Comma ( , )
3. Exclamation Marks ( ! )
4. Quotation Marks ( )
5. Question Marks ( ? )
 Punctuation

6. Colon ( : )
7. Semi-colon ( ; )
8. Apostrophe ( )
9. Parentheses ( )
10.Dash / Hyphen ( - )
 Punctuation
1. You should use a capital letter at the
beginning of every sentence, a full stop at the
end of every statement and a question mark
at the end of every question.

2. You should use a capital letter to begin the

name of a person, town or country.

3. You should make sure that you use the

possessive apostrophe correctly.
Thanks to you.
 Spelling
1. Make sure that you use the words there and
their, and then and than correctly.
2. When a word ends in p, t, d, m, n, and l and has a
short vowel in its final syllable, the consonant
should be doubled when the suffixes able, -ed,
and ing are added. When the final syllable
contains a long vowel, the consonant should not
be doubled.
3. If you use a word which spells the sound /i:/
with the letters i and e, you should use this rule
for their order: i before (not after) e. (exception:
seize)
 Capitalization
1. The first word of every sentence.
2. The first-person singular pronoun, I.
3. The first, last, and important words in a title.
(The concept "important words" usually
does not include articles, short prepositions
(which means you might want to capitalize
"towards" or "between," say), the "to" of an
infinitive, and coordinating conjunctions.
 Capitalization
4. Proper nouns
Specific persons and things
Specific geographical locations
Names of celestial bodies: Mars, Saturn, the Milky
Way.
Names of newspapers and journals.
Days of the week, months, holidays.
Historical events
Races, nationalities, languages
Names of religions and religious terms
Names of courses
Brand names
 Capitalization
5. Names of relationships only when they are a
part of or a substitute for a person's name.
 Practice 1

Subject Verb Agreement Exercise.pdf

Practice 2
 Practice 3
Make 10 good sentences in a piece of paper
consider S-V Agreement, Punctuation, and
Capitalization (10 minutes)
Swap your work with your friend.
Check your friends work and give comments.
 References
Gillett, Andy. (2013). Using English for Academic Purpose: A
Guide for Students in Higher Education. [Online]. Available
at: http://www.uefap.com/
Oshima, A& Hogue, A. (1999). Writing Academic English
(3rd ed) . New York: Longman.
Wishon, G.E. & Burks, J.M. (1980). Lets Write English. New
York: Litton Educational Publishing Inc.
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
http://www.laflemm.com/hmco/RfRonline.html
http://www.azargrammar.com/materials/uueg/UUEG_Pow
erPoint.html
http://owl.english.purdue.edu