Lesson 2: Subject-Verb Agreement, Irregular Nouns and Collective Nouns

•  To compose clear and coherent sentences using irregular and collective nouns, following the rules of subject-verb agreement.

• To plan and write a two- to three-paragraph composition.

•   To compose clear and coherent sentences using irregular and collective nouns, following the rules of subject-verb agreement.

• To plan and write a two- to three-paragraph composition.

 A. Read each item carefully. Circle the correct form of the noun that will make the sentence correct.

1. Our (shelf, shelves) in the Science laboratory are filled with books on different topics.

2. A (hypothesis, hypotheses) is something we learned to create in Science class.

3. The (mouse, mice) we observed in our experiment is interesting.

4. The (datum, data) that we gathered were very helpful in making a conclusion.

5. Our teacher said our (analysis, analyses) was able to show the results of our experiment well.

B. Read each item carefully. Put a check mark (✔) in the blank before the number if the subject-verb agreement of the sentence is correct and put a cross mark (✘) if it is not.

_____ 1. A flock of birds is flying overhead.

_____ 2. Many groups of people was gathered around

              our guest speaker during our general assembly.

_____ 3. A pride of lions were featured in the

           documentary we watched when we studied

            mammals.

_____ 4. A swarm of bees was in the school garden so we

              stayed away from it.

_____ 5. Pads of paper were laid out for the pupils to use.

  Do you notice anything about the choices in Part A?  Is there anything special about the way the plural forms are written?

Now, look at Part B. Do you notice something different with the subject of each sentence? 

All of the subjects feature groups of people, animals, or things. What do you call nouns that talk about groups of nouns?

Read the sentences below. Pay attention to the underlined words. 

1. We have different plant and animal species in our Science lab. 

2. We have preserved fish in jars.

3. Pots of cacti are lined up against the windowsill.

4. I saw different types of bacteria under the microscope. What do the underlined words tell you? They are all NOUNS.

Recall that nouns are words that name people, places, objects, events, and animals. When you are talking about just one noun, it is in singular form. When you are talking about more than one noun, we say it is in plural form. While most nouns form their plural by adding -s or -es at the end, there are some words that don’t follow this rule.

These are called irregular nouns. Some irregular nouns have similarities in the way their plural form is written. Study the lists below:

 Math: Following Rules

 Values: Cooperations

   In forming a coherent and clear sentences using the Subject- Verb Agreement in Irregular nouns and collective nouns, follow the rules in order to have a correct grammar. It is just like in Math , we follow rules to come up with the correct answer.

 The children will answer the activity after the discussion.