Soal Subject Verb Agreement
Multiple Choice
1. Septina and I … baking sponge cakes at this time yesterday.
A. Were
B. Was
C. When
Answer: "Were : Dua atau lebih subjek yang dihubungkan dengan AND menggunakan plural verb."
2. Whether to buy or rent a house … an important financial question.
A. Am
B. Is
C. Are
Answer: "Is : Dua atau lebih singular subjek dihubungkan dengan OR menggunakan singular verb."
3. … Tika or her co-workers sleep at work.
A. Do
B. Does
C. Doesn't
Answer: "Does : Verb disesuaikan dengan compound subjek (menggunakan OR) yang terdekat posisinya dengannya, apakah singular atau plural."
4. Physics … been my favorite subject since I was 15 years old.
A. Have
B. Has
C. Had
Answer: "Has : Cabang keilmuan dengan ending -ics bermakna singular sehingga diikuti singular verb."
5. Mumps usually … through saliva.
A. Spreads
B. Spread
C. Spred
Answer: "Spreads : Nama penyakit dengan ending -s seperti measles atau mumps bermakna singular sehingga menggunakan singular verb."
6. My shears … sharp enough.
A. Aren't
B. Are
C. Has
Answer: "Aren’t: Subject berupa benda dengan dua bagian pada satu kesatuan membutuhkan plural verb."
7. Eighty percentage of his furniture … old.
A. Are
B. Am
C. Is
Answer: "Is : Noun setelah “… percentage of” (fractional expression) menentukan apakah diikuti oleh singular atau plural verb."
8. There … many ways to say “thank you”.
A. Are
B. Am
C. Is
Answer: "Are : There bukan subject. Subject muncul seteah verb to be, yaitu: ways. Verb to be disesuaikan dengan subject, apakah singular atau plural."
9. One of her cats … like tuna.
A. Do
B. Doesn't
C. Does
Answer: "Doesn’t : Verb disesuaikan dengan subject (one), bukan prepositional phrase diantaranya."
10. The central office manager, along with his two assistant, … left the room.
A. Had
B. Has
C. Have
Answer: "Has : “along with” digunakan bersama subjek tanpa menambah jumlah."
Error Analysis
1. Indefinite pronouns seperti anyone, everyone, someone, no one, nobody selalu dianggap singular, maka dari itu memerlukan singular verbs.
Everyone has done his or her homework.
Somebody has left her purse.
Beberapa indefinite pronouns — seperti all, some — bisa dianggap singular atau plural tergantung pada apa yang diacu. (Apakah yang diacu tersebut termasuk kata benda countable atau uncountable). Perlu ketelitian dalam memilih verb untuk pronoun seperti tersebut di atas.
Some of the beads are missing.
Some of the water is gone.
Sebaliknya, ada satu indefinite pronoun, yaitu "none", yang dapat dianggap singular atau plural; kita bisa menggunakan baik singular atau plural verbs untuk pronoun ini — kecuali ada hal lain dalam kalimat yang dapat menentukan jumlahnya. (Penulis pada umumnya menganggap "none" mempunyai arti yang sama dengan "not any" dan akan memilih plural verb, seperti pada "None of the engines are working," akan tetapi apabila ada hal yangmembuat kita menganggap "none" berarti "not one", kita gunakan singular verb, seperti pada "None of the food is fresh.")
None of you claims responsibility for this incident?
None of you claim responsibility for this incident?
None of the students have done their homework. (In this last example, the word their precludes the use of the singular verb.
2. Beberapa indefinite pronouns berpotensi membingungkan.Everyone and everybody terdengar atau terasa seperti lebih dari satu orang, oleh karenanya para siswa biasanya terjebak menggunakan plural verbs.Meskipun demikian, everyone dan everybody selalu singular. Each biasanya diikuti oleh prepositional phrase yang diakhiri dengan plural word (Each of the cars), hal seperti ini thus membingungkan dalam pemilihan verb yang akan digunakan. Each, juga selalu dianggap singular dan memerlukan singular verb.
Everyone has finished his or her homework.
Kita bisa mengucapkan, "Everybody is here." hal ini berarti kata tersebut singular dann tidak ada yang akan mengubahnya
Each of the students is responsible for doing his or her work in the library.
Jangan sampai kata "students" membingungkan anda; subyek dalam kalimat tersebut adalah each, sedangkan each selalu dianggap singular.
3. Frase seperti together with, as well as, dan along with tidak sama dengan and. Frase yang didahului dengan as well as or along with memodifikasi kata di depannya (dalam hal ini mayor), akan tetapi kata tersebut tidak menggabungkan subyek-subyeknya (sepertifungsipada kata and).
The mayor as well as his brothers is going to prison.
The mayor and his brothers are going to jail.
4. Pronouns neither and either selalu dianggap singular dan memerlukan singular verbs meskipun kelihatannya mengacu pada dua hal.
Neither of the two traffic lights is working.
Which shirt do you want for Christmas?
Either is fine with me.
Dalam penulisan informal, neither and either kadang memerlukan plural verb ketika pronoun-pronoun tersebut diikuti oleh prepositional phrase yang diawali dengan of. Oleh sebab itu, bentuk kalimat interrogative berikut ini benar"Have either of you two clowns read the assignment?" "Are either of you taking this seriously?" Burchfield menyebut fenomena bahasa ini sebagai "a clash between notional and actual agreement."*
5. Kata sambung or tidak menggabungkan subyek yang mendahului dan mengikutinya (seperti fungsi pada kata and) ketika nor atau or digunakan, subyek yang lebih dekat pada verb yang digunakan untuk menentukan single atau plural nya.
Either my father or my brothers are going to sell the house.
Neither my brothers nor my father is going to sell the house.
Are either my brothers or my father responsible?
Is either my father or my brothers responsible?
6. Kata there dan here tidak bisa berfungsi sebagai subyek.
There are two reasons [plural subject] for this.
There is no reason for this.
Here are two apples.
Dengan susunan kalimat seperti yang dapat kita lihat pada contoh di atas (disebut expletive constructions), subyek muncul setelah verb, akan tetapi tetap digunakan untuk menentukan single atau plural nya.
7. Verbs dalam present tense subyek orang ketiga tunggal (he, she, it kata lain yang bisa digantkan oleh pronoun tersebut) berakhiran -s.
He loves and she loves and they love_ and . . . .
8. Terkadang modifiers berada di antara subject dan verb, akan tetapi modifiers ini tidak mempengaruhi subject - verb agreement.
The mayor, who has been convicted along with his four brothers on four counts of various crimes but who also seems, like a cat, to have several political lives, is finally going to jail.
9. Terkadang nouns mempunyai bentuk yang aneh dan dapat membuat kita bingung sehingga berpikir bahwa bentuknya adalah singular. Kata-kata seperti glasses, pants, pliers, and scissors are regarded as plural (and require plural verbs) unless they're preceded the phrase pair of (in which case the word pair becomes the subject).
My glasses were on the bed.
My pants were torn.
A pair of plaid trousers is in the closet.
10. Beberapa kata berakhiran -s dan kelihatannya seperti plural, padahal sebenarnya mempunyai bentuk singular.
The news from the front is bad.
Measles is a dangerous disease for pregnant women.
Sebaliknya, beberapa kata berakhiran -s mengacu pada benda tunggal, akan tetapi dianggap plural.
My assets were wiped out in the depression.
The average worker's earnings have gone up dramatically.
Our thanks go to the workers who supported the union.
Nama klub / tim olahraga yang tidak berakhiran dengan -s membutuhkan plural verb: the Miami Heat have been looking … , The Connecticut Sun are hoping that new talent … .
11. Fractional expressions seperti half of, a part of, a percentage of, a majority of terkadang singular dan plural, tergantung pada artinya. Penjumlahan dan hasil dari proses matematika dianggap singular. Ungkapan "more than one" (oddly enough) bisa membutuhkan singular verb: "More than one student has tried this."
Some of the voters are still angry.
A large percentage of the older population is voting against her.
Two-fifths of the troops were lost in the battle.
Two-fifths of the vineyard was destroyed by fire.
Forty percent of the students are in favor of changing the policy.
Forty percent of the student body is in favor of changing the policy.
Two and two is four.
Four times four divided by two is eight.
12. Apabila kalimat anda menggabungkan subyek positif dan negatif, dan salah satu subyek singular dan yang satunya plural, verb harus mengacu pada subyek yang positif.
The department members but not the chair have decided not to teach on Valentine's Day.
It is not the faculty members but the president who decides this issue.
It was the speaker, not his ideas, that has provoked the students to riot.
13. The little girl spoke so quiet that I could hardly hear her.
A B C D
The little girl spoke so quiet that I could hardly hear her. (adjective – adverb form)
. . . soquietlythat . . .
14. Each driver should check the oil level in their car every three months.
A B C D
Each driver should check the oil level in their car every three months. (pronoun-antecedent agreement)
S= dianggap tunggal
. . . in his or her car . . .
15. I hated to ask Anita, whom is a very stingy person to lend me money.
A B C D
I hated to ask Anita who is a very stingy person to lend me money. (commas nonessential interrupter) kikir
. . . Anita,who is a very stingy person ,to . . .
