INTRODUCTION
Concord is a major problem for some second language learners of English. It is even evident in some people’s spoken language. No matter how interesting a lecture or presentation may be, if it is full of concord errors, the audience may loose concentration. Even if it is a sermon, if you are not careful as a preacher, you may not get the desired effect of your preaching on the congregation. This therefore makes this unit on concord an all important unit in this course.
As mentioned earlier, concord is the formal agreement in person, number, gender or tense between two or more parts of a sentence. It is formal in the sense that the use of one necessitates the use of another. For example in the present tense of the verb ‘to be’, ‘I’ can only be combined with ‘am’, and vice versa. This may be called bilateral concord. Also, ‘we’ can only be combined with ‘are’ in the present
tense.
3.1 Concord Relationships
Aremo (1995) notes that the rule of concord between the subject item and the predicator item goes thus:
A singular subject is used with a singular predicator.
A plural subject is used with a plural predicator.
Example:
1. a noun phrase with a singular count noun as headword e.g.
The man sings well.
The woman dances well.
2. a mass noun or a noun phrase with a mass noun as headword e.g..
Petrol burns easily.
The water looks dirty.
3. a proper noun e.g..
Bola helps us sometimes
John visits us often.
4. any one of the third person singular pronouns –he, she and it (commonly substituted for one or other of the items mentioned in 1-4 above.
She dances well.
It burns easily. It cries often.
Looks dirty. sings beautifully.
She visits us often/She helps us often
In matters of subject/predicator concord, mass nouns and proper nouns are treated as singular nouns.
A plural subject means one realised by:
1. a plural count noun or a noun phrase with a plural count noun as headword
Boys like rice
The boys
2. any of the plural personal pronouns- we, you and they
We
You eat yam regularly.
They
Thus we have sentences such as:
He eats----- singular predicator
They eat----- plural predicator
Aremo (1995) notes that there is what he refers to as singular concord between the subject and the predicator - i.e.
The boy eats yam daily.
(singular subject + singular predicator
Plural concord
The boys eat yam daily
(plural subject + plural predicator)
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 1
Construct five sentences with singular subjects. Make the subject of two of them to be nominal groups, that is, more than one item. E.g. ‘the boy’ as opposed to ‘boy’ which is one item.
3.1.1 Concord of Person
This occurs between a noun or pronoun and the pronouns referring to it, e.g.
He, she, it goes---
My brother thinks--
Unilateral concord of person occurs between a subject in the first or second person singular, or in one of the three persons of the plural, e.g.
I, (you, we, they) go---
Some say-----
His parents live----
I, he,( she, etc) was----
You (we, they etc) were----
In descriptive sentences, both the subject-pronoun and the verb agree in number i.e.
They are very nice people.
Are those your children?
It is they who arrange everything.
Plural Nouns
Sometimes, a noun in the plural form, more or less distinctly denotes a singular idea. For example, names of games – billiards, dominoes, draughts etc are all in the plural form. You can have sentences such as the following:
. Billiards is not exclusively a men’s game.
. Draughts is not entirely a game of mathematical calculation.
A plural subject may consist of two or more coordinated pronouns in the singular, e.g.
. John and Mary have gone.
When two coordinated nouns form a semantic unit, the verbal predicate may take a singular form e.g.
. A cart and horse was seen at a distance.
. The United States of today is nine times as large as the United States of 1800
. Is the United States imperialist?
3.2 Number Concord
The rule of number concord ( being both singular or plural) between the subject and the predicator only applies when the verb used as predicator is in the present tense, it does not apply when the verb is in the past tense. Thus we have sentences such as:
. The boy goes there everyday.
. The boys go there everyday.
With a past tense verb, we have sentences such as:
. The boy went there everyday.
. The boys went there everyday.
You will notice that the past tense of the verb go which is went is the same for both singular and plural. The concord relationship between the subject and the predicator is only emphasised with the present forms i.e. go /goes.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2
Construct five sentences each with the present and past forms of the verbs you choose. Each pair of sentences should indicate the number concord for both singular and plural.
3.2.1 Singular Nouns
Singular nouns denoting a number of individuals take a plural verb when the persons composing the group are thought of individually, a singular verb when the group is thought of collectively, e.g.
. The crowd were deeply affected.
. An immense crowd was assembled.
. My family are early risers.
. His family was an old one.
. The majority of the stickers are already resuming work.
. The government majority in the lower house was perilously small.
Aremo 1995 notes that the equational verb –‘Be’ is the most unusual verb in English. It can be found in more forms than any other verb. Other verbs have a single past tense form but ‘Be’ has two—i.e. was / were. Other verbs have two present tense forms, ‘Be’ has three i.e. am, is, are. The use of any of these forms depends on the kind of item. (singular count noun/ plural count noun) Like other verbs, ‘Be’ as predicator must be in concord with the subject item. Please note that even though it was earlier stated that the rule of number concord between subject and predicator only applies when the verb is used in the present tense, with the verb ‘Be’, it is different. It affects both the past and the present forms. As a result, ‘is’ (present) and ‘was’ (past) are regarded as singular verbs. Below are examples:
The girl is now a University student.
She
The man was a rogue.
He
‘Are’ (present) and ‘were’ (past) are plural verbs used with plural
subjects. i.e.
The women are nursing mothers.
The women were nursing mothers.
They
It is important to note that ‘I’ (singular pronoun) is used as subject with ‘am’ (present) and ‘was’ (past). i.e.
. I am now a business man.
. I was once a business man
You should also note that subjects realised by ‘you’ (singular or plural) are used. With are (present) and were (past).
. Singular - You are now a teacher.
. Plural - You were once teachers.
4.0 CONCLUSION
The rule of concord is a very important one in English. Without a good mastery of it, we will all be writing and making all kinds of mistakes. In this unit, we have been able to go through some essential things to note on concord. Some of the sections may look like repetition, go through them all and you will see the essence of whatever you think is repeated.
5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit, you learnt that:
1. a singular subject is used with a singular predicator.
2. a plural subject is used with a plural predicator.
3. in descriptive sentences, both the subject and the verb agree in number.
4. singular nouns denoting a number of individuals take a plural verb when the persons composing the group are thought of individually,
5. plural nouns, in spite of its plural form, more or less distinctly denote a singular idea.
6. the educational verb –‘Be’ is the most unusual verb in English
7. other verbs have two present tense forms, ‘Be’ has three i.e. am, is, are.
8. other verbs have a single past tense form but ‘Be’ has two—i.e. was / were.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
Construct sentences with all the variants of the verb ‘to be’ with special reference to the singular and plural forms.
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Adedeji, E.O. (2005). Grammatical ties in English Discourse in Moji Olateju & Lekan Oyeleye (Eds) Perspectives on Language and Literature. Ile-Ife, Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo University. pp 157-166.
Aremo, B (2001). (ed.). Advanced English Compositions. Lagos, Nigeria: Scribo Educational Books.
Aremo, B. (1995). An Introduction to English Sentences (1). Ibadan, Nigeria: Caltop Publications Nigeria Ltd.
Aremo, B. (1997). An Introduction to English Sentences (2). Ibadan, Nigeria: Caltop Publications Nigeria Ltd.
Asiyanbola, A.A. (2005). Sentence Connective Devices as Linguistic Tools for English Reading Tasks in a Nigerian ESL in Moji Olateju & Lekan Oyeleye (eds.). Perspectives on Language and Literature. Ile-Ife,Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo University. pp 187-184.
Babalola, E.T. (2005). The Grammar of Paragraphs and the Mechanics of Good Written English.in Moji Olateju & Lekan Oyeleye (eds.). Perspectives on Language and Literature. Ile-Ife, Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo University. pp 269-284.
Zandvoort, R.W. (1967). A Handbook of English Grammar. London: Longman Group Limited.
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