Hanoi pedagogical university no.2 Foreign language faculty BUI THI HUONG COMMON ERRORS RELATED TO SUBJECT- VERB AGREEMENT AMONG THE FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HA NOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY NO.2 (Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of bachelor of arts in English) SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN THI MINH PHUONG, B.A Hanoi, May 2013 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this chance to express my greatest gratitude to Mrs Nguyen Thi Minh Phuong, my supervisor, for her patience in providing continuous and careful guidance as well as encouragement, indispensable suggestions and advice I wish to thank all the lecturers at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2, especially the lecturers in the Foreign Language Faculty for their dedicated instructions during my years of university work I am in particularly grateful to the first- year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 for their enthusiastic cooperation in the process of implementing my survey I also wish to thank my close friends for their willingness in helping me collect valuable reference documents and data for my research Last but not least, I owe a debt of gratitude to my beloved family, for their whole hearted encouragement and endless support ii ABSTRACT The subject- verb agreement is one of important parts of English grammar A grammatical sentence must contain a subject and its verb and they must agree with each other However, it is not easy to grasp fully rules of subject- verb agreement and special cases of the subject to have a right match between the subject and its verb As a result, students of English often make errors when they deal with different cases of subject- verb agreement Therefore, this research work entails studying rules of subject- verb agreement and conducts a survey for error analysis Based on the result of the survey, the types of errors and causes have been found Solutions to the problems have been suggested iii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Title: Common Errors related to Subject-Verb Agreement among the first year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 (Graduation paper submitted in partial fulfilment of the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in English) I certify that no part of this report has been copied or reproduced by me from any other person work without acknowledgements and that the report is originally written by me under strict guidance from my supervisor Dated submitted: May 2013 Student Supervisor Bui Thi Huong Nguyen Thi Minh Phuong iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv PART ONE INTRODUCTION I- RATIONALE II- RESEARCH PRESUPPOSITION III- RESEARCH OBJECTIVES IV- RESEARCH SCOPE V- RESEARCH TASK VI- RESEARCH METHODS VII- SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH VIII- DESIGN OF THE RESEARCH WORK PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1 Literature review in brief I.2 Subject- verb agreement I.2.1 Definition of subject and verb I.2.2 General rules of subject- verb agreement I.2.3 Main cases of subject- verb agreement I.2.3.1 Clauses, phrases, and adverbs functioning as subjects I.2.3.2 Intervening phrases or clauses between the subject and its verb v I.2.3.3 Compound subjects by “and” I.2.3.4 Principle of proximity I.2.3.5 Collective nouns used as subjects 10 I.2.3.6 Relative pronouns used as subjects 12 I.2.3.7 Indefinite expressions as subjects 13 I.2.3.8 Agreement in inverted sentences 15 I.2.3.9 Plural words and phrases used as names, titles, and quotations 16 I.2.3.10 Expressions of amount, measurement, mathematical phrase, fraction, and percentage as subjects 16 I.2.3.11 Plural forms of nouns as subjects 17 CHAPTER TWO: COMMON ERRORS RELATED TO SUBJECT- VERB AGREEMENT AMONG THE FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY No.2 II.1 Survey 22 II.1.1 Purpose of the survey 22 II.1.2 Population of the survey 22 II.1.3 Types of the survey 23 II.1.4 Construction of the test 23 II.1.5 Preparation of the survey 23 II.1.5.1 Test items 23 II.1.5.2 Arrangement of the test items 24 II.1.6 Administration of the try-out 25 II.1.6.1 Preparation of the try-out 25 II.1.6.2 Try-out 26 II.1.7 Method of the data analysis 26 II.1.8 Result of the survey 26 II.2 Common errors and causes 28 II.2.1 Errors related to subject-verb agreement in sentences containing compound subjects connected by “and” 28 vi II.2.2 Errors in matching the verb with the subject when subjects are nouns of foreign plural 29 II.2.3 Errors in matching verbs with subjects modified with quantifiers “every”, “each”, and “many a” 30 II.2.4 Errors in using plural verbs after some nouns singular in meaning but plural in form 30 II.2.5 Errors in matching verbs with subjects when subjects are nouns having the same plural and singular form 31 II.2.6 Errors related to subject- verb agreement when subjects are collective nouns 31 II.2.7 Errors related to subject- verb agreement in inverted sentences 32 II.2.8 Errors in using verbs after relative pronouns preceeded by “one of” and “the only one of” 33 II.2.9 Errors in using singular verbs after some unmarked plurals 33 II.2.10 Errors related to subject- verb agreement when subjects are expressions of amount, measurement, mathematical phrase, fraction, and percentage 34 II.2.11 Errors when breaking the principle of proximity 35 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” 35 II.2.13 Errors related to subject- verb agreement when phrases or clauses intervene between subject and verb 36 II.3 Suggested solutions and exercises 37 II.3.1 Suggested solutions 37 II.3.2 Suggested exercises 39 vii PART THREE CONCLUSION CONCLUSION 41 REFERENCES 43 APPENDICES 45 SURVEY QUESTIONARE 45 SUGGESTED EXERCISES 50 viii PART ONE INTRODUCTION I RATIONALE Nowadays, English is an international language and is one of the most popular and most spoken in the world In Vietnam, English is being taught at every educational level However, English grammar often causes embarrassment to students There are lots of different aspects to English grammar, and each is as important as the last Subject-verb agreement is one of principal parts of English grammar A grammatical sentence must contain a subject and its verb and they must agree with each other Having a solid understanding of this concept is critical when making a good impression in your writing, and it will help ensure that your ideas are communicated clearly According to McGraw-Hill Grammar Dictionary, in English, subject-verb agreement is the rule of grammar that states that singular subjects must agree with singular verbs and plural subjects must agree with plural verbs However, the trick is in knowing whether the subject is singular or plural The next trick is recognizing a singular or plural verb In addition, students often exercises of writing sentences, writing paragraphs and essays However, in many cases, they may not know the right way to agree a verb with its subject and their English sentences are produced incorrectly Hence, subject-verb agreement errors are among the most common mistakes that students make on their school papers With the aim of helping learners of English, especially the first- year major English students at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 to overcome these difficulties, this thesis is focused on finding all possible errors in subject- verb agreement in order to help the students to avoid making those errors when doing grammatical exercises as well as writing and speaking English II RESEARCH PRESUPPOSITIONS Some questions are raised: 1) What kinds of errors related to subject- verb agreement are the most often made by the first- year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2? 2) What are the causes of the errors related to subject- verb agreement made by the first- year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2? 3) What are some solutions to minimize errors related to subject- verb agreement made by the first- year English major students at Hanoi Pedagodical University No.2? III RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The study is aimed at the following goals: 1) To find out kinds of errors related to subject- verb agreement made by the first- year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 2) To find out the main errors related to subject- verb agreement made by the first- year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 3) To find out the causes of the errors related to subject- verb agreement made by the first- year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 IV RESEARCH SCOPE The general research area of this study is grammar The phenomenon is errors related to subject- verb agreement made by the first- year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 The population involved in the study is one hundred first- year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 V RESEARCH TASKS The study involves fulfilling the following tasks: 1) To study clearly all the basic rules of subject- verb agreement in English 2) To find out the common errors related to subject- verb agreement by the first- year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 On PART THREE CONCLUSION It is undeniable that grammar is very important in the language system However, it is complex and often causes embarrassment to the students of English, even to advanced learners The subject- verb agreement is a grammatical category that has many rules and special cases of the subject Therefore, students are often confused in matching the verb with the subject For this reason, the study has focused on errors related to subject- verb agreement among the first- year English major students at Hanoi Pedagodical University No.2 Taking this point into consideration, the thesis gives an understandable and quite complete picture of subject- verb agreement Almost things related to subject- verb agreement such as definition, general rule of subject- verb agreement, and cases of subject- verb agreement were presented Hopefully, the student will have a full look at this grammatical category Then a survey was conducted with the aim of testing the student’s understanding of subject- verb agreement and finding their common errors related to subject- verb agreement The outcome of the survey proves that the first- year English major students at Hanoi Pedagodical University No.2 often make mistake in subject- verb agreement The survey shows that the highest percentage of errors is subject- verb agreement in sentences containing compound subjects connected by “and”, which accounts for 66.67% The second commonsest is the errors in subject- verb agreement when subjects are nouns of foreign plural, which stand at 65.66% No students made the errors related to subject- verb agreement when the subjects are plural words and phrases used as names, titles, and quotations; the subjects are indefinite pronouns such as everything, nothing, anyone, somebody, etc The thirdteen common errors were analysed and causes of those types of errors were also pointed out From the result of the survey, it has been proved that the major causes are students’s limmited knowledge of subject- verb agreement rules and tricky cases of the subjects 41 Based on the findings, some suggested solutions to the problems have been made The teacher, firstly, are advised to provide students with a good knowledge of subject- verb agreement in which confused cases should be more concentrated such as inverted sentences, nouns of irregular plurals, indefinite quantifiers and pronouns as subject It is also necessary to give students some techniques to find the subject and the verb to help them avoid making the errors of subject- verb agreement because of misunderstanding of the subject in a sentence In addition, teachers should give students various types of exercises on subject- verb agreement and repeat the practices on subject- verb agreement to help students remember all the rules As for the students, they should master all rules of subject- verb agreement by doing exercises relating to subject- verb agreement as many as possible Moreover, they are advised to enrich their vocabulary of nouns having plural forms but singular meanings; nouns having the same plural and singular form; unmarked plural nouns; nouns of foreign plurals in order to know the right number of the subject and the verb in tricky cases of nouns such as news, darts, deer, police, medium, etc When the students are not sure if a noun is singular or plural, they shoul look up the noun in the dictionary Beside exercises given by the teachers and exercises in grammar books, the students should access into some suggested websites to get more practices on subject- verb agreement It is hoped that the study has made certain contributions to the English teaching and learning in Vietnam Although I have made great efforts, mistakes and shortcomings are unavoidable I would be much grateful to welcome all possible comments from the readers to accomplish the work 42 REFERENCES Alexander, L.G (1989) Longman English Grammar London: Longman Publishing Group Abrams, E (2008) Abrams' Guide to Grammar, 2nd ed Riva: IconLogic, Inc Eastwood, J (1992) Oxford Practice Grammar with answers, 10th ed Oxford: Oxford University Press Elliott, R (1997) Painless Grammar New York: Barron's Educational Series Hewings, M (1999) Advanced Grammar in Use Cambridge: Cambrige University Press Kreloff, C (1996) The American Heritage Book of English Usage: A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English Boston: Houghton Mifflin Larsen and Murcia (1983) The Grammar Book: an ESL/ EFL Teacher's Course London: Newbury House Publishers McGraw- Hill (1999) Grammar and Composition Handbook High School 2, 1st ed New York: McGraw- Hill McGraw- Hill (1996) Writer’s Choice Grammar Workbook 11.New York: McGraw- Hill Murphy, R (2000) English Grammar in Use Cambridge: Cambridge University Penston, T (2005) Concise Grammar for English Language Teachers Greystones: Tp Publications Quirk, R et al (1985) A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language,2nd ed London: Longman Publishing Group Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S.(1976) A University Grammar of English London: Longman Radford, A (1997) Syntactic Theory and the Structure of English Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Richard, S & Wellman, G (1999) Grammar and Vocabulary for Cambrige Advanced and Proficiency Essex: Longman 43 Sinclair, J et al (1990) Collins Cobuild English Grammar Glasgow: HarperCollins Publishers Straus, J (2008) The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation: An Easy-to-Use Guide with Clear Rules, Real-World Examples, and Reproducible Quizzes,10th ed San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Walker, E., & Elsworth, S (2000) Grammar Practice for Pre-intermediate Students Essex: Longman Wilson, P., & Glazier, T.F (2011) The Least You Should Know about English: Writing Skills, Form A, 11st ed Boston: Wadsworth Woods, G (2010) English Grammar For Dummies, 2nd ed Hoboken: Wiley Publishing Yates (1996) Master the Basics- English New York: Barron’s Educational Series 44 APPENDICES SURVEY QUESTIONNARE Part A: Could you please give me some personal information? How long have you been learning English? What is your English like? A Excellent B Good D Not very good C Rather good E Other She lives in China In this sentence, the verb “ lives” is matched with the subject “ She” It is: subject- verb agreement of A 1st singular person B 2nd singular person C 3rd singular person Underline the subject and the verb of the following sentence: Reliance only on written tests of English to measure language ability appears to be a cheap option Part B: Please the exercises bellow I Underline the subject; and make the verb in brackets agree with the subject E.x: The issues which have been considered in the previous section allow us to speculate on problems that learners might encounter (allow) Across the road her boyfriend (live) One-third of the city a blackout tonight (experience) The only people who are interested in the book lawyers to be (seem) Every one of the roses (bloom) Angie’s fellow alumni that taxes are evil, and that position is popular with some voters (believe) 10 Carol is one of those people who 45 hot, humid weather (enjoy) II Circle the verb form in each sentence that agrees in number with the subject 11 Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol (is/are) famous Pop Artists 12 Fish and chips (is/ are) Tom’s favorite at the moment 13.The President, along with his wife and children, (is/are) leaving for Camp David 14 A thick blanket of smoke and fog (hang/ hangs) over the city 15 There (is/are) the bananas and the grapes 16 Lauren is the only one of those people who (like/ likes) to stay up late 17 Either Josh or his partners (is going/ are going) to jail 18 Neither the fire marshal nor the police officers (was/were) aware of the bowling tournament 19 Robert, not I, (is going/ am going) to the play 20 “Neither of my uncles (have agreed/ has agreed) to take me to the movies this afternoon 21 Either of the principal singers (has/have) enough talent to carry the musical 22 Every orchestra seat and balcony box (is/are) sold already 23 Everyone (has/have) invested a substantial amount in whatever Lola wants, but no one (is/are) expecting a profit, despite the strong ticket sales 24 Mathematics is one of his classes that (challenge/ challenges) him 25 Each penny and dime (was/ were) counted III Underline the verbs twice and the subjects once If the subjects and verbs not agree, change the verbs to match the subjects 26 None of the sweets were left 27 The football team want to win 28 The committee usually raises their hands to vote 29 The news were worse than I had expected 30 Nobody know the trouble I've seen 31 This series is very interesting 46 32 The Bean Eaters are the poem by Gwendolyn Brooks 33 The folder, not the letters, were misplaced 34 A number of sailors have been shipwrecked on that reef 35 The number of men, women, children that watch the annual parade are amazing 36 Seven percent of our salaries go toward retirement 37 Science Fiction Annals always have many interesting stories 38 Either the teachers or the principal are to blame for the accident ` 39 My memorandum on the subject makes my ideas perfectly clear 40 Darts is often played in pubs in England 41 All the cattle are grazing in the field 42 Headquarters has asked that you be transferred 43 High among nineteenth-century American painters rank Mary Cassatt 44 Many an adolescent and adult seem reluctant to take advice from someone older 45 These sheep is mine 46 All of the concert were enjoyable and none of the tickets haven’t been sold 47 Three-fourths of the pies have been eaten 48 Only forty percent of the eligible voters is going to the polls 49 Even fifty thousand dollars don’t buy what it did twenty years ago 50 The police has surrounded the building 51 Sixteen by twenty inches is a standard size for a picture frame 52 Her friend and companion is George 53 One and one is two 54 The football team put on their uniforms 55 The data of the survey is not good for our company Thank You for Your Cooperation! 47 KEY OF THE SURVEY: C Subject: Reliance only on written tests of English to measure language ability Verb: appears lives 16 likes experiences 17 are going seem 18 were blooms 19 is going believe 20 has agreed 10 enjoy 21 has 11 are 22 is 12 is 23 has, is 13 is 24 challenge 14 hangs 25 was 15 are 26 None of the sweets were left 27 The football team want to win [want => wants] 28 The committee usually raises their hands to vote [raises => raise] 29 The news were worse than I had expected [were => was] 30 Nobody know the trouble I've seen [know => knows] 31 This series is very interesting 32 The Bean Eaters are the poem by Gwendolyn Brooks [are => is] 33 The folder, not the letters, were misplaced [were => was] 34 A number of sailors have been shipwrecked on that reef 35 The number of men, women, children that watch the annual parade are amazing [are => is] 36 Seven percent of our salaries go toward retirement [go => goes] 37 Science Fiction Annals always have many interesting stories 48 [have => has] 38 Either the teachers or the principal are to blame for the accident [are => is] ` 39 My memorandum on the subject makes my ideas perfectly clear 40 Darts is often played in pubs in England 41 All the cattle are grazing in the field 42 Headquarters has asked that you be transferred 43 High among nineteenth-century American painters rank Mary Cassatt [rank => ranks] 44 Many an adolescent and adult seem reluctant to take advice from someone older [seem => seems] 45 These sheep is mine [is => are] 46 All of the concert were enjoyable and none of the tickets haven’t been sold [were => was] 47 Three-fourths of the pies have been eaten 48 Only forty percent of the eligible voters is going to the polls [is going => are going] 49 Even fifty thousand dollars don’t buy what it did twenty years ago [don’t buy => doesn’t buy] 50 The police has surrounded the building [has => have] 51 Sixteen by twenty inches is a standard size for a picture frame 52 Her friend and companion is George 53 One and one is two 54 The football team put on their uniforms 55 The data of the survey is not good for our company [is => are] 49 SUGGESTED EXERCISES Exercise 1: Underline the verbs twice and the subjects once If the subjects and verbs not agree, change the verbs to match the subjects 1) Either Gary or I are responsible for allocating the funds 2) Neither she nor they were willing to predict the election results 3) Nora is one of the candidates who is worthy of my vote 4) Nora, of all the candidates, who is running, is the best 5) Here is the reports from yesterday 6) Some of my goals has yet to be met 7) There’s three strawberries left 8) My problem, which is minor in comparison with others, exist because I dropped out of high school 9) None of this is your business 10) One-third of the people are suffering 11) All of my goals are being met and surpassed 12) His dogs, which are kept outside, bark all day long 13) Each of those dresses is beautiful 14) Five hundred dollars are the price that the dealer is asking 15) A golden retriever is one of those dogs that is always faithful 16) Politics were one of Angie’s hobbies when she was young 17) The media loves to cover Angie’s career 18) My memorandum on the subject makes my ideas perfectly clear 19) When I visit Angie, the news is always on 20) It’s difficult to drag her away from the television, though it’s possible if the Giants are playing KEY: 1) Either Gary or I are responsible for allocating the funds [ are => am] 2) Neither she nor they were willing to predict the election results 50 3) Nora is one of the candidates who is worthy of my vote [is => are] 4) Nora, of all the candidates, who is running, is the best 5) Here is the reports from yesterday [is => are] 6) Some of my goals has yet to be met [has yet to be met => have yet to be met] 7) There is three strawberries left [is => are] 8) My problem, which is minor in comparison with others, exist because I dropped out of high school [exist => exists] 9) None of this is your business 10) One-third of the people are suffering 11) All of my goals are being met and surpassed 12) His dogs, which are kept outside, bark all day long 13) Each of those dresses is beautiful 14) Five hundred dollars are the price that the dealer is asking [are => is] 15) A golden retriever is one of those dogs that is always faithful [is2 => are] 16) Politics were one of Angie’s hobbies when she was young [were => was] 17) The media loves to cover Angie’s career [loves => love] 18) My memorandum on the subject makes my ideas perfectly clear 19) When I visit Angie, the news is always on 20) It is difficult to drag her away from the television, though it is possible if the Giants are playing [ are => is] 51 Exercise 2: Choose the correct form of the verb 1) “In every single one of my pockets a gun,” read the note (is/are) 2) John, as well as the criminal mastermind Dana, _ easily caught (was/were) 3) Any of the reviews the ability to make or break the production (has/have) 4) (Has/Have) either the director or the musicians agreed on a contract? 5) I don’t understand the tattoo fixation because neither of Lola’s parents any tattoos (has/have) 6) A lot of crime caused by people being careless (is/are) 7) Peanut butter and jelly my favorite sandwich (is/ are) 8) The statistics of the game 9) The family not good for our team (is/ are) on Elm Street (lives/ live) 10) Eight pounds of grapes a lot of grapes (is/ are) 11) Standing there looking happy 12) My pair of scissors 13) My feet lost (is/ are) broken (is/ are) 14) The cattle going to be sold with the farm (is/ are) 15) This species in the Northwest (exists/ exist) 16) A large barracks 17) Four time two going to be built (is/ are) eight (is/ are) 18) One fifth of the sugar 19) Wales Wesley and Austin (was/ were) (melts/ melt) very beautiful girls (have/ has) 20) The majority of the voters about what to (disagree/ disagrees) KEY: 1) is 4) has 2) was 5) has 3) have 6) is 52 7) is 15) exists 8) are 16) is 9) lives 17) is 10) live 18) melts 11) were 19) has 12) is 20) disagree 13) are 14) are Exercise 3: Identify and revise the subject-verb agreement errors in the passage Uncle Stanley and his girlfriend, Kira, is coming to visit me next weekend Unfortunately, neither of them are very interesting Every time they visit, Kira sleeps about eighteen hours a day, and Stanley tells childhood stories over and over There is only about three stories in his entire repertoire, and, although he finds them amusing, neither his stories nor his one and only joke are funny at all I try to get him to discuss other topics, but economics are his only real interest, and I don’t find that topic very interesting either I hate to admit it, but I hope the days they spend with me passes quickly KEY: Uncle Stanley and his girlfriend, Kira, are coming to visit me next weekend Unfortunately, neither of them is very interesting Every time they visit,Kira sleeps about eighteen hours a day, and Stanley tells childhood stories over and over There are only about three stories in his entire repertoire, and, although he finds them amusing, neither his stories nor his one and only joke is funny at all I try to get him to discuss other topics, but economics is his only real interest, and I don’t find that topic very interesting either I hate to admit it, but I hope the days they spend with me passes quickly Exercise 4: Put in a verb and complete the rest of the sentence Use presenttense verbs and answers will vary In Wyeth’s work 53 “Hugs and Kisses” Both the White House and the Pentagon Teri’s new eyeglasses In Pop Art,every road sign Either of her aunts Goods A delicacy such as quail eggs I like cats Several KEY: Your answers may be various In Wyeth’s work are wonderful country scenes “Hugs and Kisses” is a very interesting novel about love Both the White House and the Pentagon are protected strictly Teri’s new eyeglasses are thicker In Pop Art,every road sign becomes a potential subject Either of her aunts loves her Goods is being moved from the ship A delicacy such as quail eggs tastes delicious I like cats Several were bought for me last week Exercise 5: Put in a group noun and “is” or “are” Use these nouns given cattle, choir, crew, orchestra, police, population, team 1) This United .the best one Tom has ever seen 2) The …… .hoping they can take part in a national singing contest 3) The ship's all very tired after a long sea voyage 4) The ……………………one of the biggest that has played at one of our concerts 5) The …………………… installing cameras to photograph speeding motorists 6) At the moment beef ………………… cheap because sales of beef are low 54 7) The country's .growing rapidly because of immigration KEY: 1) This United team is the best one Tom has ever seen 2) The orchestra is hoping they can take part in a national singing contest 3) The ship’s crew are all very tired after a long sea voyage 4) The police are installing cameras to photograph speeding motorists 5) At the moment beef cattle are cheap because sales of beef are low 6) The country’s population is growing rapidly because of immigration Some suggested websites: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/599/01/ http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/sv_agr.htm http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/sv_agr.htm http://www.ehow.com/info_8287817_subjectverb-agreement-lessons.html http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/subjectVerbAgree.asp 55 ... at Hanoi Pedagogical University No. 2? 2) What are the causes of the errors related to subject- verb agreement made by the first- year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical University No. 2? ... main errors related to subject- verb agreement made by the first- year English major students at Hanoi Pedagogical University No. 2 3) To find out the causes of the errors related to subject- verb. .. phenomenon phenomena 21 CHAPTER TWO COMMON ERRORS RELATED TO SUBJECT- VERB AGREEMENT AMONG THE FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HA NOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY NO. 2 This chapter focuses on the