English - Grammatical Concord

Definition:

Concord is the relationship between a subject and its verb, or between a number or determiner and its noun; e.g. I look/she looks… one bell/three bells. It is also called concord. Concord can also be seen as the relationship between words in gender, number, case, person, or any other grammatical category which affects the forms of the words.

Concord, as it is also often referred to, mainly focuses on subject-verb agreement. This is subdivided into three categories:

• Grammatical concord
• Concord of proximity
• Notional concord

"Some Rules for Grammatical Concord"

The grand rule of subject-verb concord is that a singular subject takes a singular verb and a plural subject takes a plural verb. And it is needful to establish this fact that singular verbs are inflected with suffix ‘-s’ while plural verbs maintain the base form. In other words, a singular verb ends with an ‘s’ and a plural verb has no ‘s’.

Verb

Singular   •     Plural

comes     •     come            

greets      •     greet

prays        •     pray

Let’s check some of the guiding rules under grammatical concord:

Rule 1: Singular subjects take singular verbs.

• The student advocates for free lunch after the extra mural lesson.
• A serious situation calls for a serious approach.
• The period between pregnancy and childbirth is sometimes critical.
• Anxiety solves no problem.

Rule 2: Plural subjects take plural verbs.

• The children wake up late every day.
• Serious issues call for serious approaches.
• The young boys on the pitch play
• What you see and how you react determine the outcome.
• My father and his friend believe in corporal punishment.

Note: The focus is on the subject of the verb, not what comes in between the subject and the verb.

Rule 3: When a subject is joined to another noun by subordinator, disregard the subjoined noun or noun phrase. Focus on the first noun.

• The chairman alongside other members visits the orphanage quarterly.
• The teachers with the principal encourage the students to perform well.
• The senior prefect, as well as, other students never likes the physics teacher.

From the examples above, we have two nouns in each subject slot as highlighted below:

• The chairman alongside other members …
• The teachers with the principal …
• The senior prefect, as well as, other students…

The subjoined nouns are members, principal and students. Going by the rules, the focus of the expression is on chairman, teachers and senior prefect. Hence, they determine the nature of the verbs. Moreover, the sentence can be restructured thus for further clarity:

• *Alongside other members, the chairman visits the orphanage quarterly.
• *With the principal, the teachers encourage the students to perform well.

So, the main subject determines the status of the verb.

Other examples:

• The man with his children attends to customers.
• The soldiers as well as the vigilante team watch over the small community.

Rule 4: When more than one is used as a subject of a verb in simple present tense, the verb should be singular because the headword is one.

• More than one man was asked to embark on the journey.
• More than one mango was shared among the children.

Rule 5: When two nouns refer to one person at the subject position, the verb should be singular, of course, because it is one person.

See these:

• My husband and boss never goes late for meetings.

° Here the speaker’s husband is also her boss. So, one pre-modifier us used for both nouns as it is one person. Compare, “My husband and my boss never go late to meeting”. Here, the speaker is referring to two different people.°

• The president and Commander-in-chief of the armed forces lives his life fighting corruption.
• The class captain and best student of our set is just too proud.

Note: Always check for the pre-modifier when you have two nouns in the subject slot. When the nouns refer to one person, we use one pre-modifier.

Rule 6: When an indefinite pronoun pre-modifies a subject or acts as the main subject, the verb should be singular.

• Everyone loves to be respected.
• Every boy and girl loves his or her mother.
• Nobody cares for everybody’s job.

Rule 7: Some nouns end with ‘s’ but they are singular. You need to be careful because they are meant to go with singular verbs.

• Measles is caused by uncleanliness.
• Mathematics has been the problem of most students.
• Statistics was the only course accredited in that institution.

Rule 8: When a relative/adjectival clause qualifies a noun, the verb in the relative/adjectival clause works with the noun it qualifies.

For instance, ‘One of the girls that sit in the front row has been suspended’. ‘sit’ in the relative clause agrees with ‘girls’ as the relative clause, ‘that sit in the front row’ qualifies the noun, ‘girls’. Then, the main verb in the sentence ‘has’ agrees with ‘one’.

Semantically, it means many girls sit in the front row only one has been suspended.

Other examples:

• Algebra is one of the topics that confuse
• Dr Osoba is one of the lecturers who teach well in LASU.

Rule 8: when a generic reference is used with the definite article ‘the’ as a subject of the verb, the verb should be plural.

Generic reference is used when you make a reference to all the members of a class of people or things.

Examples:

• The rich also cry.
• The less privileged look after one another.
• The young dream
• The wise don’t talk too much.

Rule 9: When a result of a survey is issued or reported, caution should be exercised to avoid error of overgeneralization.

For instance, ‘One in ten prefer coffee to tea’; Not, ‘One in ten prefers coffee to tea’. In the real sense, more than one person prefers coffee. So, if we have thirty-two people in a group and we say one in ten, it then means at least two. Such expressions attract the plural.

Other examples: 

• One in every five boys go to the local cinema.                   

Rule 10. When an uncountable noun is introduced with a quantifier or percentage, it attracts a singular verb. In the same vein, when a countable noun is introduced in percentage, it goes with a plural verb.

• A quarter of the land is occupied by the aborigines.
• Two cups of flour is enough for the cake.
• Only ten percent of people in the world actually believe in self-actualization.
• A two-third of the ECOMOG forces were involved.

Rule 11. When a modal auxiliary verb precedes a main verb, the verb maintains the base form.

• The boy might come
• He came in so that we could discuss the issue.
• The matter should go to court.

Rule 12: Mandative Subjunctive: Mandative Subjunctive is used to express a demand, requirement, request, recommendation or suggestion. When it is used with either a the singular or the plural subject, the verb takes the base form:

• I recommend he attend the seminar alone.
• I pray she come early tomorrow.
• The board suggests the chairman resign immediately.

 Concord of proximity

The rule here says when a subject of a sentence is initiated by ‘either…or, ‘neither…nor, ‘not only…but’ only the noun after the correlative conjunction, that is, the one closer to the main verb is considered to determine the status of the verb.

For instance

• Neither the vice principal nor the teachers honour the principal.
• Neither the teachers nor the vice principal honours the principal.
• Either the main man or I am supposed to anchor the event.
• Not only the king but his subjects swear to the gods of the land.
• Not only the people of the land but also the priest defies the tradition.

 Notional concord

Here under notional concord we consider the relationship between collective nouns and their verbs. A collective noun is a noun used to refer a group of people or thing e.g. committee, team etc.

With collective nouns, the context determines whether the verb is singular or plural. If the noun is taken as a unit. Then the singular verb will be used but if the members in the group are seen as separate. Then, the plural will be used.

Examples:

• The committee meets once in a year.
• The committee contribute to issues as they are empowered.
• The jury vote according to their consciences.
• The jury was dissolved after the case.

Practice Questions:

1. The employer, not the salesman and his representative _______ responsible for the loss.

A. are never

B. are being

C. is

D. have been

2. The present wanton display of riches _______ morality of our society.

A. is affecting

B. are affecting

C. was affecting

D. will be affecting

3. One of the rioters who ________ arrested yesterday ________ released.

A. was/had been

B. was/have been

C. were/has been

D. were/have been

4. The effort made by the principal to get the students to be serious in their studies _______.

A. will appreciate

B. is to appreciate

C. is appreciated

D. are appreciated

5. The only set of loud speakers available _______ to be connected according to instruction.

A. is

B. were

C. are

D. have

6. James _______ reminding that not all that glitters is gold.

A. need

B. needing

C. need to

D. needs

7. One of the men _______ round the lawn three times every evening.

A. is used to running

B. are used to running

C. used to run

D. use to run

8. Each of the contestants _______ a chance to win.

A. have

B. get

C. gets

D. has

9. One of the ladies who _______ in the premises _______ been asked to withdraw.

A. sells/has

B. sell/have

C. sells/have

D. sell/has

10. Knowledge of figures of speech as well as of idioms and lexical items _______ in this section.

A. have been tested

B. is tested

C. are tested

D. were tested

Answers:

1. C

2. A

3. C

4. C

5. A

6. D

7. A

8. D

9. D

10. B