LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• distinguish between simple and compound subjects
• compose clear and coherent sentences with compound subject and verb
agreement
SUCCESS CRITERIA
distinguished between simple and compound subjects
• composed clear and coherent sentences with compound subject and verb
agreement
DISCUSSION
A. Circle the verb that would make the sentence correct.
1. Boys and girls alike (is, are) fond of animals.
2. Karen and her friends (volunteers, volunteer) at the animal
shelter on weekends.
3. Francis (gives, give) the dogs a bath.
4. Christian and Johann (brushes, brush) the cats’ fur.
5. The employees at the shelter (appreciates, appreciate) the
help the kids provide.
6. The dogs and cats too (jumps, jump) with delight when
they see their visitors.
How did you do? Were you able to distinguish when to use
the singular and plural forms of the verbs?
When we communicate, it is important that we express ourselves in complete thoughts to make sure people understand what we are trying to say. To ensure this, we must use sentences.
A sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought. It has two important parts: the subject and the predicate.
The subject is basically the topic or the doer in the sentence. The subject of a sentence is a person, place, thing, or idea that is doing or being something.
It is either a noun or a pronoun.
The predicate shows an action or gives more information about the subject. It is a verb.
Isabelle feeds her pet goldfish every morning.
The underlined word in the sentence above is the simple subject. This means that it simply tells us who or what the sentence is about. No modifiers are included when a simple subject is identified.
The circled word is the predicate. This simply is the verb in the sentence.
There is also what we call the compound subject. When a sentence has two or more subjects, it is called a compound subject. The individual elements
in a compound subject may be joined by words like and, or, either/or, or neither/nor.
Look at this example:
Isabella and Olivia feed their pet everyday.
Compound Subject - two doers
It is important to note that when using verbs in the present tense, your subjects and verbs should agree in number. If you have one subject, your verb must be in its singular form.
Isabelle feeds her pet goldfish every day.
The bird sings beautifully.
For compound subjects, when and is used to join the elements, the compound subject is treated as plural; therefore, the verb must be in its base form.
Isabelle and Olivia feed their pets every day.
Dogs and cats make nice pets.
My friends and I go to the zoo.
Roses, gardenias, and sampaguitas are beautiful flowers. When the subjects are joined by or, either/or, or neither/nor, the verb should agree with the subject closest to the verb.
The monkeys or the gorilla finishes all the bananas.
In the example above, since gorilla is the subject nearest the verb and it is in its singular form, the verb finishes is in its singular form, too. Here are more
examples:
Neither Corrie nor her friends own cats.
Either your cats or my dog sleeps on the couch.
Anna or Benny takes care of the dogs.
Always look for the main subject to make sure that your subject and verb agree. Some modifiers get in between the subject and the predicate.
Examples:
A nest of birds sits on the tree branch.
The word nest is the main subject in the sentence and of birds are just modifiers or words that describe or refer to the word nest.
Read the sentence below. Can you identify the subject and predicate? Does the sentence have a simple or compound subject?
My mommy and daddy bring me to La Mesa Eco Park.
CROSS CURRICULAR LINK
FILIPINO; Tambalang Salita
REAL LIFE APPLICATION:
The students will write 5 sentences using compound subjects and verb agreement in their English notebook.
EVALUATION
The students will answer the activity after the discussion.