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Glossary: agreement

A term for the way one grammatical element matches ('agrees') with another in some way, usually used for Subject-verb agreement, where a present tense verb changes form depending on the number (singular vs. plural) of the Subject. E.g. The baby cries (singular) vs. The babies cry (plural).

Subject-Verb Agreement

In this lesson, students select the correct verb to compose an acceptable sentence.

Goals

  • Practise composing sentences with appropriate Subject-Verb agreement.
  • Identify acceptable patterns in Standard English.

Lesson Plan

The teacher explains that today, we will select the correct verb on the smart board, to construct acceptable sentences.

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Subject-Verb Agreement: 'Be' verbs

Telephones
are
is
am
really weird.

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Y6 GPaS Test: Forms of 'be': Advanced

Select the correct form of be:

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Y6 GPaS Test: Forms of 'be'

Select the correct form of be:

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Y6 GPaS Test: Select the verb form

Select the correct verb form for each example.

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Verbs: Nonfinite and finite

Verbs can be divided into finite and nonfinite forms. Finite verbs carry tense. So, past and present tense verb forms are finite. Nonfinite verbs do not carry tense, and do not show agreement with a Subject. Put differently, they are not 'limited' by tense or agreement.

The infinitive form of a verb is nonfinite. It is the form which follows to:

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Verbs

Verbs have traditionally been described as ‘doing words’ or ‘action words’. This works well for some verbs, like sprint, chatter, eat. Here are some sentence examples with verbs which describe actions:

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Englicious (C) Survey of English Usage, UCL, 2012-21 | Supported by the AHRC and EPSRC. | Privacy | Cookies