11 August 2014

Clause elements concord

Verb forms change according to whether the subject is singular or plural or whether the subject is the first, second or third person. Pronouns reflect the gender of a subject. This agreement is called concord.


Number
Grammatical concord             My son helps me a lot. My son is great.
                                                    My sons help me a lot. My sons are great.
Notional concord                     The team have won the cup.  
                                                                                 (we think about the individual members of the team)
                                                    The team has won the cup. (we take the team as a collective unity)
The Canterbury Tales exist(s) in many versions (depends on whether we understand as one book or a think of it as separately short taleS).

Person
The verb changes according to the person in the subject.
I am a luck person. He is a lucky person. You are so lucky! He was lucky. They were lucky.

Gender
Personal pronouns or reflexive pronouns reveal gender of the subject.

Tom hurt his foot. Our teacher took her time. The writer hurt herself with a pen. Everyone think(s) they (he) have (has) the answer.

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