in today's lesson we're going to look at
a basic lesson in matching verbs to
subjects we're going to look at some
pronouns and we're going to look at the
preparatory subject there okay i'll get
to i'll explain what that means so
generally speaking you've learned from
basic classes
your verb will match the subject right
if the subject is singular the verb will
be singular if the subject is a verb if
the subject is plural the verb will be
plural right now here we have a little
bit of a problem why because the word
there is not actually the subject of the
sentence
this is called a preparatory subject
preparatory
preparatory subject
which means that it's taking the place
of the subject which comes later which
it comes after the verb
the reason we do that is because to
begin the sentence with a long subject
doesn't feel comfortable so we move it
to the end of the sentence and we put
there in its place so generally now what
you have to understand is that when you
use there is or there are
the verb matches the noun after it which
is the subject right so there is a
person there is a man in the room
there are people in the room so a man is
singular is
people plural are right but
then you have a sentence like this
there is or are a chair a table and a tv
in the room so a lot of people get
confused they're not sure do i match it
to the chair which is singular or do i
match it to one two
three things
which create a compound subject and it's
plural now if you hear native speakers
speaking
most of them will use is there is a
chair a table and a tv in the room it
just sounds more natural
but technically
the correct verb is r
because a chair a table and a tv
are
in the room this is your subject it is a
plural subject you're going to need the
plural verb to complete the sentence so
one way to test if your
if your verb should be a singular or
plural is to rearrange the sentence put
the actual subject
before the verb and then match the verb
to the subject don't match it to there
because there is nothing okay so now
speaking of rearranging
the best way to not have any confusion
or to not feel awkward is not to use
sentences beginning with there is there
are
most writers and editors will tell you
that sentences beginning with there is
there are are weak sentences they're not
powerful sentences and you should try to
avoid them so a chair a table and a tv
are in the room okay or
i walked into the room and i saw a tv a
chair and a
sorry a chair a table on tv make a new
sentence put the thing the items as
objects put something else as a subject
make sure your verbs match or agree and
then you'll avoid all the awkwardness
now another before i go on let me give
you another example
there's all types of people there are
all types of people now all types of
people this is a plural
and
you should say there are all types of
people
but people
native speakers don't like the rr
they're
there right it's a little bit
uncomfortable for the tongue to say plus
it's two syllable two syllables
theirs is one syllable and easier to say
easier for the mouth so many if not most
native english speakers will say there's
all types of people there's five cars in
the parking lot there's a there's a few
people at the bar whatever the situation
is even though it's not correct
people will say this more often than not
okay so now what you have to understand
about english there's correct english
and then there is commonly used english
they're not always the same okay
native speakers
basically make grammar mistakes all the
time and it's acceptable it's accepted
because so many people do it now another
thing to keep in mind
spoken english written english
if you say there's all types of people
if you say there's five cars in the
parking lot nobody will even think twice
the conversation will continue
in writing
it's a problem in writing you can
confuse the reader because
remember when you're speaking to someone
you're using your hand you're using your
face to basically convey some meaning
in writing there's only the reader and
the words if you make grammar mistakes
in written english you can make it very
difficult for the reader
when you're writing be correct when
you're speaking be comfortable that's
the key point here and in writing and
speaking if you're not comfortable if
you're not sure change the sentence
around make a new sentence but keep the
same meaning
now
i want to look at some of these pronouns
because sometimes these give people a
little bit of a confusion right
each or every person
each and every will always take a
singular each person means each
individual
every basically means all the individual
people so we're still talking about
every
person in the group
we're not talking about the whole group
as one group we're talking about all the
individuals in the group and that's why
we're using the singular verb okay so
each and every we're talking about each
individual
in the group because we're talking about
each individual we're using is on the
other hand when we look at all
we're still looking at all the
individuals but we're looking at them as
a collection
so now there's not one person
individually there are many people in
the group and we're looking at all of
them and so we're using the plural verb
are
all the people are welcome to join the
conversation okay on the other hand the
whole now the whole this is not a
pronoun
your
noun your subject is going to be here
the whole group so now we're taking all
the people but we're not looking at the
people we're looking at the collection
the group the one unit even though it
has all the little different pieces in
it so the whole group
is welcome to join us for lunch okay so
whole
singular all plural okay so remember
that
then we have none
none basically means no one single
person or no one single thing
now generally we use it with none
of okay none of the students for example
so similarly to
there is or there are there is the
correct way and then there's the common
way
in
correct english none is always singular
especially when you have of okay
none of the students is not any single
student we're talking about the
individuals is
uh
excused or free to go
but again in informal speech you will
hear many people say none of the
students are free to go
very common
technically not correct
is this correct but in spoken english if
you use r okay in written english you
should try to use is be correct
now sometimes you'll you see none
without the of
so i invite i ask some of my staff to
volunteer for this project
but none are interested
again most people will use r because
we're talking about a few people
but technically none is interested is
the correct way now spoken english say
whichever one you feel comfortable with
if you're gonna be taking a university
entrance exam like the sat or the gmat
okay
these have grammar a grammar section
each of these exams has a grammar
section in it
on this grammar section you have to be
correct they're testing your knowledge
of correct grammar
spoken english whatever you want
when you need to be correct be singular
for none okay
and same with neither or either
neither is or are again spoken english
neither i asked the two of them to come
to the party but neither is available
neither are available
neither is coming neither are coming
and i know that only one of them is will
come but i don't know uh if it's either
her or him that is going to come
singular so these because it's one or
the other singular or singular correct
is
commonly used or acceptable are
neither of us is coming neither of us
are coming
again
although it's a plural
correct is is
commonly acceptable is our
your choice written english be correct
is for this pronoun we're going to look
at a few of the indefinite pronouns
different pronouns and see how they work
as well okay so now we have these other
pronouns these are called indefinite
pronouns everybody or everyone somebody
anybody nobody whenever you're using
these as subjects of your sentence
they're always going to be singular
always everybody is never everybody are
now if you want to say r
you say all the people
right then you have to split it up and
use the word the pronoun all but as soon
as you're using it as one word everybody
somebody anybody and nobody you're using
is on the other hand something is
we don't know what it is it's an
indefinite pronoun but it's one
something is if you want to use plural
don't forget two words some things are
it's no longer
a pronoun now you have a qualifier and
you have an actual
noun subject okay
everything is all things are
two words this is a noun this is a
pronoun
is are anything and nothing
is okay these you can't split are split
up and they're always going to be
singular so when you have indefinite
pronouns singular when you want plural
split them up into nouns and qualifiers
okay that's basically it so if you have
any questions about this please go to
ingvid.com and ask in the comment
section there is also a quiz on the site
where you can test your understanding of
the verb matching with these pronouns
and
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