Yesterday, I taught some 15 Rules on the Subject-Verb
Agreement to my M1 class at Cambodian Mekong University. Thanks to my
students who are attentive. As I was preparing for my American Literature class
this morning, I began to notice in the comprehension question something I had
not thought about it before. The question goes like this: "What does he
really want"? Suddenly, it dawned on me. I had already known that
grammatically speaking this was the correct usage but I wasn't satisfied. Why
is the verb 'want' not in the singular form to agree with singular
pronoun 'he'? This prompted me to do some reading and research. My quest
was rather why is this, not how is this. Although I have not found any rule yet
in the use of 'DOES", I found some common usage that allowed me to
formulate the TIP I've listed below.
SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT
The basic rule of subject verb agreement as we already knew
states that a singular subject takes a singular
verb, while a plural subject takes
a plural verb.
Example:
1. He eats. 'He' is singular and 'eats' is singular.
2. They eat. 'They is plural and 'eat' is plural.
3. The students are enjoying the show.
4. The audience is enjoying the show. 'Audience' is collective noun and therefore takes the singular verb 'is'.
EXCEPTION TO THE RULE
But there is always exception to any rule. Why can you not say "Does
she has a boyfriend?" The pronoun 'She' is a singular and
according to the rule it should take a singular verb. The correct one therefore is Does she 'have' a boyfriend? Why can you not
say "I has a boyfriend"? "I" is singular, so it
should use the singular verb 'has' instead of have. Yet, we say, 'I have a boyfriend'. Why can we not say, "Do
you has a boyfriend"? But instead, we say, Do you have a boyfriend?
TIP:
Even if
"DOES", "I", and "YOU" are singular, they take
plural verbs.
This is why we say, "What do you think about
this rule?" We do not say what do you thinks?
This is why we say, "What DOES he think about
this rule"? We do not say, what does he thinks........?
This is why we say, "I think the
rule is easy to remember". We do not say, I thinks.....
Remember: Use plural verb with "Does", "You", and
"I" even if these are singular subjects.
ANOTHER EXCEPTION TO THE RULE: Use singular verb with always singular nouns.
1. Audience
2. Traffic
3. Furniture
4. Water
5. Wine
6. Sugar
7. Rice
8. Coffee
9. Air
10. Music
This is nothing profound. Do your personal research. There are tons of stuff on the web about grammar.
