Rules of Concord (1)

Reading books on rules of concord was one of the strategic steps I took when I desired to resist uncertainty and anxiety while writing and speaking. Before the knowledge I embraced, I suffered terribly from an imbalanced understanding of these rules compulsory for every user of English. Countless times, I deleted my reactions to posts on Facebook because I was suspicious of my expressions. If I had diligently surveyed the rules, I would not have erased my brilliant ideas.
If you really wish to sound fluent and write impeccably, study today’s content with enthusiasm. As a voracious reader, I studied the fact that your emotion has a huge role to play in your comprehension of the language. It is disheartening to state that a large number of English users battle with these rules. Several individuals always lose their composure while addressing other speakers during interviews, occasions and other public engagements. Learn this fact if you belong to the category of these victims of fear: There is no perfect speaker anywhere. Clumsy mistakes are tools for effective communication. I strongly believe that native speakers make grammatical blunders too, especially while speaking. A comment was posted by an American on Facebook a few days ago; however, it was riddled with punctuation errors and several mispelt words.

IDENTIFICATION OF SINGULAR AND PLURAL SUBJECTS
Plural subjects have “s”, “es”, “ ies” or “en” inflections while singular subjects do not have any inflection.
Examples of singular subjects: Girl, boy, man, lady, child, book, friend
Examples of plural subjects: Girls, boys, men, ladies, children, books, friends

SINGULAR AND PLURAL VERBS
Singular verbs take “s”, “ es” or “ies” inflections.
Examples: Goes, tries, walks, discusses, examines and teaches
Plural verbs do not take any inflections. Examples: Go, try, walk, discuss, examine and teach

USE OF SINGULAR SUBJECTS AND SINGULAR VERBS
If the subject of a sentence is singular, the verb must also be singular.
Study the following sentences.
She likes rice and beans. (Correct)
She like rice and beans. (Wrong)
The first expression is accurate because it reflects the rule that states that singular subjects must be used with singular verbs. The subject “She” is singular while the verb “likes” is singular too.
In the second instance, the plural verb “like” negates the rule. It should have been written as “They like rice and beans.” This is because the plural subject “they” requires the plural verb “like”, not “likes”. Do you understand the point I just emphasized?
Other examples
Bola cries every day.
Eze attends the University of Lagos.
My brother takes proper care of his spouse.
All the subjects (Bola, Eze, My brother) are singular in each of the sentences. The verbs (cries, attends, takes) are singular verbs too.

COORDINATED CONCORD
This rule states that whenever two or more subjects are coordinated by “and”, the plural form of the verb should be used.

Examples
My brother and I are dancing.
Aishat and John trek to school every day.
The principal and our teachers instruct us every morning.
Do you realize that the subjects in those sentences are coordinated by “and”? Imagine writing “ My brother and I is around” which is wrong. I guess you know the verb that fits the subjects- My brother and I.

INDEFINITE PRONOUN CONCORD
Indefinite pronouns do not refer to any person. Examples: “Someone”, “somebody”, “anybody”, “nobody”, “everybody”, “anyone”, “each”, “none” and “every”. Grammatically, they are treated as singular subjects; therefore, they attract singular verbs.
Examine the following sentences
Nobody knows tomorrow.
Everyone complains about the present administration.
Someone is in class.

APPOSITION CONCORD
Whenever two singular subjects refer to the same entity, a singular verb is required.
Example 1: My mother and confidant is in Lagos.
Example 2: The minister and chairman travels to the United Kingdom every month.
In the first example, my brother is also my friend. Therefore, we have one subject there. If I had written “My brother and my confidant…”, we would have considered them as two subjects, i.e., My brother and my confidant.
The same rule is evident in the second example. The minister, who also doubles as the chairman, travels to the United Kingdom every month. We have also one subject here. Therefore, it automatically uses the singular verb.

QUASI-COORDINATION CONCORD
These are known as quasi-coordinators: with, as well as, as much as, in conjunction with, along with, including, in collaboration with, etc.
Whenever two or more subjects are coordinated by each of these quasi-coordinators, the first subject determines the verb choice.

Examples
My mother with his sister is in London. (correct)
My mother with his sister are in London. (wrong)
Professor Bala along with Mr. Emeka lectures in Ghana.(correct)
Professor Bala along with Mr. Emeka lecture in Ghana. (wrong)
If I had written “My mother and his sister are in London”, it would have been correct.

Assignment

Choose the correct answer to each of the following sentences.
1. My husband and friend……. me unconditionally. (a) love (b) loves (c) loving
2. Everyone…… ready for the lecturer. (a) is (b) are (c) were
3. The woman…….. taken your pen. (a) has (b) have (c) was

Names of those who answered the last questions correctly
Priscilla Nagarta, Ojeka Victoria, John Eze, Bright Chukwuma, Ahmed Lazarus, Orogun Evidence, Gbadebo Oluwafemi, Simbiat Lawal, Senbanjo Racheal, Akintayo Aishat, Ogunsanya Serah, Olaniyi Boluwatife, Okunola Eniola, Abdulazeez Fatimoh, Idowu Rofiat, Olalekan Afeez, Oluniyi Mojolaoluwa, Okiki Ogooluwa, Yusuf Temitope, Olawole Halimat, Rasheed Fatah and Ojo God’spower.