Grammar Agreement Questions Medium
Number agreement in grammar refers to the correspondence between the subject and the verb in a sentence, ensuring that they both have the same grammatical number. In English, number agreement can be either singular or plural.
When the subject of a sentence is singular, the verb must also be singular. For example, in the sentence "She walks to school," the subject "she" is singular, and the verb "walks" agrees with it in number.
On the other hand, when the subject is plural, the verb must also be plural. For instance, in the sentence "They walk to school," the subject "they" is plural, and the verb "walk" agrees with it in number.
Number agreement also applies to pronouns and their antecedents. Pronouns must agree in number with the nouns they replace. For example, in the sentence "The students handed in their assignments," the plural pronoun "their" agrees with the plural noun "students."
In addition to subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement, number agreement is also important when using quantifiers, determiners, and adjectives. These words must agree in number with the nouns they modify. For instance, in the sentence "Many cars were parked on the street," the plural determiner "many" agrees with the plural noun "cars."
Overall, number agreement ensures grammatical consistency and clarity in a sentence by ensuring that the subject, verb, pronouns, and other related words all match in number.