Types of the compound verbal modal predicate and their use in sentence in english
has come. However, we often use plural pronouns (they, them, their
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english 6
Somebody has come.
However, we often use plural pronouns (they, them, their) to refer to these words, especially in a conversational style. If anybody calls, tell them I’m out. Nobody came, didn’t they? Someone left their umbrella yesterday. Everyone thinks they are the centre of the universe. Whoever comes, tell them to go away. The plural pronouns are used instead of he, she, him, her, as a way of purposely not specifying the sex of the person referred to. In a more formal style he, him and his (not necessarily referring to a male person) are generally used instead of they, etc. b) The pronoun none may have a plural or singular predicative. c) The interrogative pronouns who, what have a singular predicate. But if the pronoun denotes more than one person or thing a plural predicate may be used. Who has come? Who are walking on the grass? d) With relative pronouns the form of the verb depends on the noun or pronoun which is its antecedent. Do you know the girl who lives next door? Do you know the girls who live next door? But: It’s me who is right. e) If the subject is expressed by the formal emphatic pronoun “it”, the predicate is in the singular, no matter what follows. It was my friends who suddenly arrived. It’s they who are responsible. NOTE: The predicate also agrees with the subject when the subject and the predicate are of different numbers. The only guide was the stars. The stars were our only guide. f) Linked subjects introduced by each or every require a singular verb. The reason is that each and every focus on the individual units separately. Each room and corridor has been painted in the same colour. 4. With quantifiers the predicate agrees in the following way: a) The number of the predicate with the quantifiers part of, plenty of, half (of), quarter of, remainder, per cent of, percentage of, a lot of, lots of, heaps of, bags of, loads of depends on the noun it refers to, whether it is countable or uncountable. There is a lot of snow this years. There are a lot of mistakes in the test paper. There is lots of snow this year. There are lots of mistakes in the test paper. It seems like half the articles in this magazine are just filler. There’s heaps/bags/loads of time yet, slow down. There was absolutely tons of food at the party. There are tons of apples this year. The remainder of the food is for tomorrow. Two students in our group know English well, the remainder are very good people. b) The group many a + noun agrees with a singular verb. Many a lie has been told. c) The expression more than one is followed by a singular noun and verb. More than one student is present. d) The expressions a number of …, a variety of …, a group of … are normally used with plural verb. A number of students have attended the lecture. e) The expressions the number of …, the variety of … retain their concrete meaning (количество, разнообразие) are used with the definite article and have a singular verb. Download 34.43 Kb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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