Verb Agreement

7 Classes of Noun/Verb Agreement 7 Classes of Noun/Verb Agreement 7 Classes of Noun/Verb Agreement By Mark Nichol Below youll find seven classes of noun/verb agreement you need to understand. 1. Indefinite Pronouns Most indefinite pronouns correspond to singular verbs: â€Å"Someone has left her plate on the table.† â€Å"Everybody is entitled to his or her opinion.† â€Å"Each boy is responsible for his actions.† To confirm, test for the proper verb form by writing a simple sentence in which is follows the pertinent pronoun: â€Å"Someone is missing† (not â€Å"Someone are missing†). The proper verb form for some indefinite pronouns depends on the reference: â€Å"All of the soup is gone. (Soup is a single entity.) â€Å"Some of the comments are favorable. (The comments are counted as separate entities.) The indefinite pronoun none can be singular or plural depending on the context: â€Å"None of the jewels are missing.† (None of the components of the whole entity in question are missing.) â€Å"None of the jewelry is missing.† (Not one part of the whole entity is missing.) 2. Conjunctive Phrases The simple conjunction and cannot necessarily be replaced by such phrases as â€Å"along with,† â€Å"as well as,† and â€Å"together with†: â€Å"The doe along with its fawns is resting in the meadow.† (This sentence is correct, however, if â€Å"along with its fawns† is inserted into the sentence â€Å"The doe is resting in the meadow,† which requires bracketing commas. The same is true of the other phrases.) 3. â€Å"Either/Or† and â€Å"Neither/Nor† Neither and either refer to two compared or associated objects as individual entities and are therefore usually employed with singular verbs: â€Å"Neither she nor I are ready for that.† â€Å"Either option will work for me.† Informally, however, an exception is made in such constructions as â€Å"Are either of you ready?† In â€Å"either/or† and â€Å"neither/nor† constructions with a mixture of singular and plural nouns, the verb form is determined by whether the closest noun is singular or plural: â€Å"Either the captain or one of the lieutenants are leading the patrol.† â€Å"Neither the students nor the teacher remembers hearing anything.† However, because the plural noun and the singular verb still clash in the second sentence despite their lack of proximity, it is advisable to construct the sentence so that the singular pronoun precedes the plural one: â€Å"Neither the teacher nor the students remember hearing anything.† 4. Positive and Negative Subjects in Combination A subject consisting of positive and negative sentiments that differ in singular and plural form should be followed by a verb that corresponds with the positive element: â€Å"The delivery of the speech, not its contents, is the issue.† As with â€Å"either/or† and â€Å"neither/nor† constructions, perhaps it is best to rearrange the sentence so that the singular noun is in proximity with the verb: â€Å"It is not the contents of the speech, but its delivery, that is at issue.† 5. Expletives In sentences beginning with such expletives as here and there, the actual subject, which follows the verb, determines the verb form: â€Å"There is a word for that.† â€Å"Here are several choices.† 6. Plural Nouns for Single Objects Plural nouns that name single objects, such as scissors and pants, are matched with plural verbs unless the phrase â€Å"pair of† precedes the noun; in that case, pair is the subject: â€Å"Scissors are dangerous.† â€Å"A pair of scissors is required for this activity.† Some other nouns ending in s are also singular in meaning: â€Å"The mumps is a disease you don’t hear much about anymore.† Meanwhile, others stand for a single thing but call for a plural verb: â€Å"Thanks are in order.† 7. Fractional Phrases Phrases referring to a mathematical portion may, depending on the context, be singular or plural: â€Å"A small percentage of the employees are opposed.† â€Å"A large percentage of the cargo was damaged.† â€Å"Three-fourths of the land is forested.† â€Å"One-third of the trees are oaks.† Numbers expressed as part of a mathematical operation are linked with a plural verb, but the outcome of a computation is expressed as a single entity: â€Å"Ten and six are added together to equal sixteen.† â€Å"Ten minus six is four.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:The Letter "Z" Will Be Removed from the English AlphabetWhen Is a Question Not a Question?

Tres Zapotes (Mexico) - Olmec Capital City in Veracruz

Tres Zapotes (Mexico) - Olmec Capital City in Veracruz Tres Zapotes (Tres sah-po-tes, or three sapodillas) is an important Olmec archaeological site located in the state of Veracruz, in the south-central lowlands of the Gulf coast of Mexico. It is considered the third most important Olmec site, after San Lorenzo and La Venta. Named by archaeologists after the evergreen tree native to southern Mexico, Tres Zapotes flourished during the Late Formative/Late Preclassic period (after 400 BC) and was occupied for almost 2,000 years, until the end of the Classic period and into the Early Postclassic. The most important findings at this site include two colossal heads and the famous stela C. Tres Zapotes Cultural Development The site of Tres Zapotes lies on the hillside of a swampy area, near the Papaloapan and San Juan rivers of southern Veracruz, Mexico. The site contains more than 150 structures and about forty stone sculptures. Tres Zapotes became a main Olmec center only after the decline of San Lorenzo and La Venta. When the rest of the Olmec culture sites started to wane at around 400 BC, Tres Zapotes continued to survive, and it was occupied until the Early Postclassic about AD 1200. Most of the stone monuments at Tres Zapotes date to the Epi-Olmec period (which means post-Olmec), a period that began around 400 BC and signaled the decline of the Olmec world. The artistic style of these monuments shows a gradual decline of Olmec motifs and increasing stylistic connections with the Isthmus region of Mexico and the highlands of Guatemala. Stela C also belongs to the Epi-Olmec period. This monument features the second oldest Mesoamerican Long Count calendar date: 31 BC. Half of Stela C is on display in the local museum at Tres Zapotes; the other half is at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Archeologists believe that during the Late Formative/Epi-Olmec period (400 BC-AD 250/300) Tres Zapotes was occupied by people with stronger connections with the Isthmus region of Mexico, probably Mixe, a group from the same linguistic family of the Olmec. After the decline of the Olmec culture, Tres Zapotes continued to be an important regional center, but by the end of the Classic period the site was in decline and was abandoned during the Early Postclassic. Site Layout More than 150 structures have been mapped at Tres Zapotes. These mounds, only a handful of which have been excavated, consist mainly of residential platforms clustered in different groups. The residential core of the site is occupied by Group 2, a set of structures organized around a central plaza and standing almost 12 meters (40 feet) tall. Group 1 and the Nestepe Group are other important residential groups located in the immediate periphery of the site. Most Olmec sites have a central core, a downtown where all the important buildings are located: Tres Zapotes, in contrast, features a dispersed settlement model, with several of its most important structures located on the periphery. This may have been because most of those were constructed after the decline of Olmec society. The two colossal heads found at Tres Zapotes, Monuments A and Q, were not found in the core zone of the site, but rather in the residential periphery, in Group 1 and Nestepe Group. Because of its long occupation sequence, Tres Zapotes is a key site not only for understanding the development of the Olmec culture  but, more generally for the transition from Preclassic to Classic period in the Gulf Coast and in Mesoamerica. Archaeological Investigations at Tres Zapotes Archaeological interest at Tres Zapotes begun at the end of the 19th century, when in 1867 the Mexican explorer Josà © Melgar y Serrano reported seeing an Olmec colossal head in the village of Tres Zapotes. Later on, in the 20th century, other explorers and local planters recorded and described the colossal head. In the 1930s, archaeologist Matthew Stirling undertook the first excavation at the site. After that, several projects, by Mexican and United States institutions, have been carried out at Tres Zapotes. Among the archaeologists who worked at Tres Zapotes include Philip Drucker and Ponciano Ortiz Ceballos. However, compared to other Olmec sites, Tres Zapotes is still poorly known. Sources This article has been edited by K. Kris Hirst Casellas Caà ±ellas E. 2005. El Contexto arqueolà ³gico de la cabeza colosal Olmeca Nà ºmero 7 de San Lorenzo, Veracruz, Mà ©xico. Bellaterra: Universitat Autà ²noma de Barcelona.Loughlin ML, Pool CA, Fernandez-Diaz JC, and Shrestha RL. 2016. Mapping the Tres Zapotes Polity: The Effectiveness of Lidar in Tropical Alluvial Settings. Advances in Archaeological Practice 4(3):301-313.Killion TW and Urcid J. 2001. The Olmec Legacy: Cultural Continuity and Change in Mexicos Southern Gulf Coast Lowlands Journal of Field Archaeology 28(1/2):3-25.Manzanilla L and Lopez Lujan L (eds.). 2001 [1995]. Historia Antigua de Mexico. Mexico City: Miguel Angel Porrà ºa.Pool CA, Ceballos PO, del Carmen Rodrà ­guez Martà ­nez M, and Loughlin ML. 2010. The early horizon at Tres Zapotes: implications for Olmec interaction. Ancient Mesoamerica 21(01):95-105.Pool CA, Knight CLF, and Glascock MD. 2014. Formative obsidian procurement at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico: implications for Olmec and Epi-Olm ec political economy. Ancient Mesoamerica 25(1):271-293. Pool CA (ed.). 2003. Settlement Archaeology and Political Economy at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.Pool CA. 2007. Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.VanDerwarker A, and Kruger R. 2012. Regional variation in the importance and uses of maize in the Early and Middle Formative Olmec Heartland: New archaeobotanical data from the San Carlos homestead, southern Veracruz. Latin American Antiquity 23(4):509-532.