Chapter 2: Agreement

Agreement is a concept that applies, first of all, to subjects and verbs: a singular subject must be followed by a singular verb form; a plural subject must be followed by a plural verb form. The only time you have to think about singular and plural verb forms is when you’re using present tense; verbs in other tenses do not change form, regardless of their subjects.

 

Agreement also pertains to nouns and pronouns: a singular pronoun must refer to a singular noun; a plural pronoun must refer to a plural noun.

 

That all sounds pretty reasonable, doesn’t it? Singular goes with singular; plural goes with plural. Yet it’s not always easy to diagnose the situation.

Subject-Verb Agreement

Subjects vs. other nouns

When a subject and verb are not far away from one another, it’s easy to choose the right verb form. For example,

Cash purchases are valid.

Cash purchases made in June are valid.

Cash purchases made in June or July of this year are valid.

The verb in each of those sentences (are) is plural because the subject in each of those sentences (purchases) is plural. Even though the verb drifts farther away from the subject in each sample sentence, the subject remains memorable and the correct verb form is therefore easy to select. Now, consider another sentence:

Only purchases made by an end-user customer or commercial business from an authorized HP reseller in the United States and U.S. territories are valid.

By the time you reach the twenty-third word of that sentence, you can easily forget what the subject is. You’ve met so many nouns—purchases, customer, business, reseller, United States, territories—that it’s hard to know what to choose for a verb. Do you end with is valid (singular) or are valid (plural)? The answer depends on which of those nouns is the subject. You can find the subject by asking “Who or what is valid?” The answer, purchases, tells you that are valid (plural verb form) is correct.

Vague subjects

Another type of subject that can be difficult to diagnose is a vague word—like any, either, neither, or none—followed by a prepositional phrase. Here are some examples:

Any of these products falls within your budget.

Either of these products meets your software needs.

Neither of these products is going to solve your marital difficulties.

None of these products comes with a warranty.

As you may already understand from the singular verb forms in those sentences, the vague words that begin the sentences are singular. And they are subjects. What about the word products? Why isn’t products a subject? Because it follows a preposition (of ), and no word that follows a preposition is a subject.

 

It may be easier to remember that any, either, and neither are singular if you realize that they stand for any one, either one, and neither one. Here are the first three sample sentences again, with the word one included:

Any one of these products falls within your budget.

Either one of these products meets your software needs.

Neither one of these products is going to solve your marital difficulties.

How about the word none? You can remember that it’s singular by considering it a contraction for not one. In other words,

None (not one) of these products comes with a warranty.

Speaking of one, what’s the difference between anyone and any one? Or between everyone and every one? First, they are all grammatically singular, regardless of meaning. But there is a difference in meaning between the one- and two-word versions: when you type anyone or everyone, you’re referring to people; when you type any one or every one, you may be referring to people, but not necessarily—it depends on what follows or what is understood. For example, perhaps you mean “any one of the customers” or “every one of the customers” (in which case you are referring to people); or maybe you mean “any one of the petunias” or “every one of the petunias” (in which case you are not referring to people). In sum, any one and every one mean one of a group (of people or things), rather than one person (anyone) or a bunch of people (everyone).

Unusual noun forms

Some nouns in our language are spelled in an unfamiliar way (because they are Latin) and therefore lead to agreement errors. Criteria, media, and data, for instance, are plural. Therefore, when they serve as subjects, any present-tense verb that follows must also be plural. The following sentences are correct:

The criteria are not impossible to meet.

The media swarm over a scandal.

The data seem easy to interpret.

If you want the singular form of criteria, use criterion. If you want the singular form of media, use medium. If you want the singular form of data, find another way to say it (the singular of data is datum, but it’s rarely used).

Mass nouns

Also related to agreement are the nouns in our language that do not have a plural form, even though they may refer to a group of elements. These are nouns like advice, equipment, furniture, and jewelry. They are called mass nouns, and they never end in the letter s. They are grammatically singular, which means that when they serve as subjects, the upcoming verb must be singular. A list of common mass nouns appears at the end of this chapter.

Two nouns in subject position

When do two singular nouns become a plural subject? Only when they are joined by and. Here is an example:

Che and Fidel are about to start a revolution.

There are several words that sound equivalent to and but they do not have the power to join two singular nouns into a double subject. These include as well as, along with, together with, and plus. When two singular nouns are connected by any of these words, the result is a singular subject.

 

Consider the following sentences:

Che, as well as Fidel, believes in equal opportunity for all.

Che, along with Fidel, has captured the hearts of his countrymen.

Che, together with Fidel, gratefully acknowledges his loyal following.

Che, plus Fidel, never shows up without a cigar.

What happens when two singular nouns are joined by or? The result is a singular subject because now you’re talking about one noun or the other noun, not both:

Che or Fidel is the one to ask about socialism.

The same is true of two subjects joined by either…or or neither…nor:

Either Che or Fidel is supposed to sign autographs at the rally.

Neither Che nor Fidel has a pen.

If a singular and a plural noun, joined by and, appear at the beginning of a sentence, place the singular noun first and make the verb plural. For example,

Fidel and his cigars have become famous throughout the world.

Noun-Pronoun Agreement

It’s common sense that you need a singular pronoun to refer to a singular noun and you need a plural pronoun to refer to a plural noun. Everyone knows that. But not everyone remembers the noun when it comes time to choose a pronoun. Or a person may remember the noun but doesn’t want to burden his/her sentence with a double pronoun (like his/her). Or the noun in question looks singular but represents many. So errors in noun-pronoun agreement crop up.

Clear nounsimage hazy memories

Sometimes a faulty pronoun reference occurs simply because someone doesn’t remember the noun she wrote or remembers it inaccurately (she assumes it’s plural when, in fact, it’s singular, or vice versa). The resulting error looks pretty bad:

Fidel signed the papers and then buried it under a mango tree.

The solution is to match the pronoun to the noun:

Fidel signed the papers and then buried them under a mango tree.

Singular generic words avoidance of double pronouns

A faulty pronoun reference can also occur when someone doesn’t want to use a double pronoun reference (he/she, him/her, his/her) even though the generic word it refers to is singular:

Anyone can find those papers if they have a bloodhound and a shovel.

There are three ways to fix this error.

Anyone can find those papers if he/she has a bloodhound and a shovel.

Anyone can find those papers if he has a bloodhound and a shovel.

People can find those papers if they have a bloodhound and a shovel.

Singular nouns representing groups distracted focus

A faulty pronoun reference can result from focusing on the meaning of a noun rather than on its singular form. Many nouns (committee, jury, company, firm, team, university) are singular while representing many components. Rather than recognizing and dealing with this discrepancy, people often leave the noun in singular form and follow it with a plural pronoun:

The new government wanted to see the papers Fidel had signed, but they never thought to dig under a mango tree to find them.

There are two ways to fix this inconsistency.

The new government officials wanted to see the papers Fidel had signed, but they never thought to dig under a mango tree to find them.

The new government wanted to see the papers Fidel had signed, but it didn’t pursue the matter.

Achieving agreement, whether between subjects and verbs or nouns and pronouns, is a matter of remembering what’s already on the page while continuing to write. People tend to focus exclusively on the word they’re about to type, rather than bearing in mind the words they already typed.

 

Forgetting what happened earlier in a sentence can result not only in agreement errors but also in illogical statements. Take a look at the following sentence.

People riding bicycles, instead of driving cars, is good for their health as well as their environment.

When reduced to its basic components (subject, verb, and key words that complete the meaning), that sentence says, “People…is good for health and environment.” What the author meant to convey, of course, is that riding bicycles is good for health and environment. If the writer had kept in mind what she wrote at the beginning of the sentence (People), she wouldn’t have continued with is; she would have chosen are. And, with People are clearly in mind, she wouldn’t have completed her sentence with good for their health as well as their environment; she would have apprehended the nonsense before it hit the page.

 

In a case like this—when the balance of a sentence contains the right message, but it makes no sense with the subject—the best remedy is to change the subject:

Riding bicycles, instead of driving cars, is good for people’s health as well as their environment.

To ensure both agreement and logic in all of your sentences, think of your words as musical notes. They may be clear and beautiful on their own, but are they in harmony with the others? Keep your ears open.

Common Mass Nouns

(no s on the end)

admiration

advice

aggravation

anger

anticipation

appreciation

assistance

awareness

baggage

bravery

cash

compliance

comprehension

concentration

confusion

consciousness

consideration

correspondence

darkness

devotion

diligence

empathy

energy

entertainment

enthusiasm

envy

equality

equipment

evidence

feedback

fitness

flattery

furniture

garbage

gossip

grammar

gratitude

hardware

hate

health

heat

help

hesitation

homework

honesty

honor

hospitality

hostility

humanity

humility

illiteracy

imagination

immorality

implementation

independence

information

integrity

intimidation

jargon

jealousy

jewelry

justice

knowledge

literacy

litigation

logi

cluck

luggage

mail

management

manipulation

merchandise

morale

nonsense

offspring

oppression

optimism

participation

pay

perseverance

pessimism

police

pride

privacy

proof

propaganda

prudence

public

punctuation

rage

recovery

reliance

respect

revenge

reverence

shame

sheep

slang

software

stamina

starvation

stimulation

stuff

support

training

trash

understanding

valor

vehemence

violence

warmth

waste

weather

 

QUIZ ON AGREEMENT

Below is a letter to Che from Fidel. Your job is to edit the letter for agreement. That is, look at all the present-tense verbs to see whether they agree with their subjects, and inspect all pronouns to see whether they agree with the nouns they’re referring to. If the sentence is correct, leave it alone; if it’s not, fix it.

Dear Che:


1

I want you to know how excited and optimistic I am about the revolution we are planning. For a long time I have wanted to change things in this country so that all the people—regardless of race, creed, or smoking habit—has equal access to health care, education, and cigars. (I have also longed for a sizeable audience to listen to my speeches. My family hear my ideas, but there’s only eight of them and they walk away after five minutes. I want a large group that stay transfixed for hours.)

2

Now, we need to think about practical matters. For example, who will run the military, once we take over? My brothers are interested, but none of them have a neat appearance. We need someone who at least shines their shoes.

3

And what about the economy? If we shut down the casinos, where will the money come from? Producing enough sugar and tobacco to satisfy our people and to export abroad are extremely important.

4

Public opinion is important, too. We want to create a good image to ensure that the media presents us in a positive light. If another country thinks we have a worthy cause, they may consider lending a helping hand. Speaking of hands, we’ll need to shake many in the near future, which pose a health risk. Maybe we should stick to passing out cigars.

5

So much to think about, eh? Let me know your feedbacks soon.


Fidel

 

ANSWERS TO AGREEMENT QUIZ