VIII- DESIGN OF THE RESEARCH WORK
II.2. Common errors and causes
II.2.4. Errors in using plural verbs after some nouns singular in meaning but plural
Errors in using plural verbs after some nouns singular in meaning but plural in form make up 59.48%. However, none of the students whose percentage of errors is 100%. Almost students made mistakes in case of the word “darts” which plural in form but singular in meaning of a game. For example:
Darts is often played in pubs in England.
The cause is that the students don’t seize words plural in form but singular in meaning such as measles, mumps, rickets, shingles, darts, dominoes, draughts, linguistics, mathematics, etc. The commonest word of this type the students know is “news”. No students make mistakes with this word.
The news was worse than I had expected.
II.2.5 Errors in subject- verb agreement when the subjects are nouns having the same plural and singular form
The percentage of errors in subject- verb agreement when the subjects are nouns having the same plural and singular form is 52.47%. There are sixteen students whose percentage of this type of errors is 100%. After analysis, it was found that many students don’t know that some nouns having the same singular and plural form. For example:
This series is very interesting.
Though the noun “series” in this example preceded by the singular demonstrative pronoun “this”, many respondents still correct the answer into
“are”, so the sentence turn into “This series are very interesting” whose the verb doesn’t match the subject.
Another noun of this type included in the survey is “ headquarters”
Headquarters has asked that you be transferred.
Wrong respondents change the verb into “have asked” though in this case, it refers to one single unit and this noun just has one form for both singular and plural; its form of verb is “headquarter”.
II.2.6 Errors in subject- verb agreement when the subjects are collective nouns
48.33% of the students were wrong in matching the verb with the subject when the subjects are collective noun. There were no students whose percentage of this type of errors is 100%. For instance:
The committee usually (raise/ raises) their hands to vote.
Answer: raises
Correct answer: raise
In this case, individuals in the committee “raise their hands” to vote, so “the committee” is not considered as a whole and the verb must be plural.
Unlike the above example, in the following sentence, the collective noun
“team” refers to a whole unit, so the verb is singular.
The football team [the team as a whole] wants to win.
The cause is that the students can’t distinguish which case the collective noun refers to one single unit; which refers to individual members of a group. . II.2.7 Errors in subject- verb agreement in inverted sentences
The errors related to subject- verb agreement in inverted sentences account for 45.29%. The errors in connection with inverted sentences beginning with prepositional phrases make a considerable contribution to the total percentage of this type of errors. Twelve students have 100% percentage of errors in subject- verb agreement in inverted sentences beginning with prepositional phrases. Look at the following example:
[1] Across the road...her boyfriend. (live) Answer: live
Correct answer: lives
[2] High among nineteenth-century American painters ranks Mary Cassatt.
Many students correct the answer into “rank” which doesn’t match with the subject “ Mary Cassatt”. They often misunderstand that the subject of the sentence is the prepositional phrase preceding the verb, as in [1]- “Across the road” and in [2] “High among nineteenth-century American painters” while the real subject follows the verb.
As for sentences beginning with “there” or “here”, fewer errors were made because the students know well the structure of “there is”, “there are” and the inverted sentences with “here”. For instance:
There are the bananas and the grapes.
Here comes the boy.
II.2.8 Errors in using verbs after relative pronouns preceded by “one of” and
“ the only one of”
The errors linked with the use of verbs after relative pronouns preceded by
“one of” and “the only one of” make up 32.07%. There is no students whose percentage of this type of errors is 100%.
Mathematics is one of his classes that (challenge/ challenges) him.
[ The number of the verb “challenge” is determined by the antecedent of the relative pronoun “that”- “classes”]
Answer: challenges
Correct answer: challenge
Lauren is the only one of those people who (like/ likes) to stay up late.
[The number of the verb “likes” is determined by the noun “the only one”]
Answer: like
Correct answer: likes
The cause is that the students don’t know whether the relative clause modifies the antecedent noun or the subject of the main clause. Misunderstanding of the modified nouns leads to the wrong match betwwen the subject and the verb.
II.2.9 Errors in using singular verbs after some unmarked plurals
30.55% of the students made errors of this type. There are seven students whose percentage of this type of errors is 100%. Some nouns are plural even though they have no “s” added, so if the students don’t master them or don’t look them up in the dictionary, they may think that those nouns are singular. Those nouns are cattle, people, clergy, military, folk, etc. For example:
All the cattle are grazing in the field.
Wrong respondents change the verb “are” into “is” since they think that
“cattle” is a singular noun. The same notion also includes the noun “police” as followed:
The police has surrounded the building.
The students are wrong when agreeing that the verb “has surrounded” is well matched with the subject “the police” while the right form of the verb is “have surrounded”.
II.2.10 Errors in subject- verb agreement when subjects are expressions of amount, measurement, mathematical phrases ,fraction, and percentage
26.83% of the errors involve subject- verb agreement when subjects are expressions of amount, measurement, mathematical phrases ,fraction, and percentage. The errors in subject- verb agreement when the subjects are expressions of amount make the highest percentage of this type of errors. For instance:
Even fifty thousand dollars don’t buy what it did twenty years ago.
The students who made errors when dealing with this case choose plural form of the verb as above because they don’t pay attention to the rule that when an expression of amount refers to one unit, it acts as a singular subject; when it refers to individual units, it acts as a plural subject. In this case, “fifteen thousand dollars” is one single unit. Therefore, the right form of the verb must be
Even fifty thousand dollars doesn’t buy what it did twenty years ago In this example, the amount of money is considered as individual units.
Eight dollars lie on the table.
With expressions of fraction and percentage, the students make fewer errors because the number of the verb depends on the noun following that fraction and that percentage. For example:
Three-fourths of the pies have been eaten.
Sixty percent of our resources were used.
As for measurement and mathematical phrases, they are often followed by singular verbs. Just some students make errors of this type. The survey questions are as followed:
Fourteen by twenty feet (is/ are) the size of the room.
Answer: are Correct answer: is
One and one (is/ are) two.
Answer: are Correct answer: is
II.2.11. Errors when breaking the principle of proximity
For the structures “...or...”, “...nor...”, “either ... or...”, “neither .. nor...”, subject- verb agreement follows the principle of proximity, that is, the verb agrees with whatever noun or pronoun closely precedes it.
Look at the example below:
Either the teachers or the principal is to blame for the accident.
The verb “is” agrees with the singular noun “principal” which closely precedes it. However, some students forgot this principle and chose the verb “are”
as their answers. This type of errors makes up 14.28%.
II.2.12. Errors in matching verbs with subjects modified with quantifiers such as “either of”, “neither of”, “none of”, “all of”, “a number of” and “the number of”
This type of errors accounts for 13.49%.
The quantifiers “none” and “all” are can be either singular or plural. Their numbers depend on the nouns to which they refer. When these quantifiers refer to nouns which are plural, their numbers are plural. When nouns they refer to are singular, theirs numbers are singular. For instance:
All of the concert was enjoyable and none of the tickets haven’t been sold.
However, some students chose the first verb that was “were” and the second one was “hasn’t been sold”. The students made these errors because they don’t master the use of the quantifiers “none” and “all”. The errors linked with these two quantifiers make up the highest number in comparison with errors linked with other quantifiers of this type.
“Either” and “neither” are singular quantifiers and they are used in the place of determiners which are followed by countable nouns. For example:
Neither of my uncles (have agreed/ has agreed) to take me to the movies this afternoon.
Wrong respondents chose “have agreed” as their answers. The same mistake was made in case of “either of” as in the example below:
Either of the principal singers (has/have) enough talent to carry the musical.
Answer: have Correct answer: has
As for “a number of” and “the number of”, just two students chose wrong number for the verb.
Look at this example:
The number of men, women, children that watch the annual parade is amazing.
These students chose the verb “are” as their answer. If not paying attention, it is easy to misunderstand that the subject here is “men, women, children” while the real subject is “the number of men, women, children” which is followed by a singular verb.
II.2.13. Errors in subject- verb agreement when phrases or clauses intervene between subject and verb
10.33% of the students made errors of this case.
With expressions such as together with, along with, as well as, in addition to, plus, accompanied by, and along with intervene between the subject and the verb, the number of errors made by the student is highest in comparision with the cases of “of phrases” and “not phrases” coming between the subject and the verb.
Look at the following example:
The President, along with his wife and children, (is/are) leaving for Camp David.
Wrong respondents chose “are” as their answers while the correct one is
“is”. They don’t know that though the meaning of those expressions is similar to that of “and”, the use of them doesn’t form compound subjects. Therefore, a singular verb is used.
As for prepositional pharses that intervene between the subject and the verb, fewer students made errors of this case. For instance:
A thick blanket of smoke and fog (hang/ hangs) over the city.
Answer: hang
Correct answer: hangs