Subject-Verb Agreement in Engish and Romanian

Subject-verb agreement is a grammatical rule that states that the verb must agree in number with its subject. In other words, they both must be singular or they both must be plural. You can’t have a singular subject with a plural verb or vice versa. The tricky part is in knowing the singular and plural forms of subjects and verbs.
Singular and plural subjects, or nouns, are usually pretty easy. In most cases the plural form of a noun has an “s” at the end.
Ex: Car – singular ;Cars – plural
Verbs don’t follow this pattern, though. Adding an “s” to a verb doesn’t make a plural.
Ex: Walk – plural, singular; Walks – 3rd person singular.
The basic principle of subject-verb agreement is : Singular subjects need singular verbs; plural subjects need plural verbs.
Ex: My brother is a nutritionist. My sisters are mathematicians.
Further I would try to make the difference between two systems of subject-verb agreement in two languages, English and Romanian.
First of all I would like to analyze some peculiarities of the subject- verb agreement in English language. This system is based on the general rule that singular subjects need singular verbs and plural subjects need plural verbs. Still there are some rules for building such constructions to which I have to pay attention. 1. The indefinite pronouns anyone, everyone, someone, no one, nobody are always singular and, therefore, require singular verbs.
Ex: Everyone has done his or her homework.
Ex: Somebody has left her purse. It’s worth paying attention that some indefinite pronouns — such as all, some — are singular or plural depending on what they're referring to.
Ex: Some of the beads are missing.
Ex: Some of the water is gone. On the other hand, there is one indefinite pronoun, none, that can be either singular or plural; it often doesn't matter whether you use a singular or a plural verb — unless something else in the sentence determines its number. Writers generally think of none as meaning not any and will choose a plural verb.
Ex: None of the engines are working. But when something else makes us regard none as meaning not one, we want a singular verb.
Ex: None of the food is fresh.
2. Some indefinite pronouns are particularly troublesome. Everyone and everybody certainly feel like more than one person and, therefore, students are sometimes tempted to use a plural verb with them. They are always singular, though. Each is often followed by a prepositional phrase ending in a plural word (Each of the cars), thus confusing the verb choice. Each, too, is always singular and requires a singular verb.
Ex: Everyone has finished his or her homework.
Ex: Each of the students is responsible for doing his or her work in the library. 3. Phrases such as together with, as well as, and along with are not the same as and. The phrase introduced by as well as or along with will modify the earlier word, but it does not compound the subjects, as the word and would do.
Ex: The mayor as well as his brothers is going to prison. * The mayor and his brothers are going to jail. 4. The pronouns neither and either are singular and require singular verbs even though they seem to be referring, in a sense, to two things. * Neither of the two traffic lights is working. * Which shirt do you want for Christmas?
Either is fine with me.
In informal writing, neither and either sometimes take a plural verb when these pronouns are followed by a prepositional phrase beginning with of. This is particularly true of interrogative constructions.
Ex: Have either of you two clowns read the assignment? 5. The conjunction or does not conjoin, as and does. When nor or or is used the subject closer to the verb determines the number of the verb. Whether the subject comes before or after the verb doesn't matter, the proximity determines the number.
Ex: Either my father or my brothers are going to sell the house.
Ex: Neither my brothers nor my father is going to sell the house. 6. The words there and here are never subjects.
Ex: There are two reasons for this.
Ex: There is no reason for this.
Ex: Here are two apples.
With these constructions , called expletive constructions, the subject follows the verb but still determines the number of the verb. 7. Verbs in the present tense for third-person, singular subjects have s-endings. Other verbs do not add s-endings.
Ex: He loves and she loves and they love each other. 8. Sometimes modifiers will get between a subject and its verb, but these modifiers must not confuse the agreement between the subject and its verb.
Ex: The mayor, who has been convicted along with his four brothers on four counts of various crimes but who also seems, like a cat, to have several political lives, is finally going to jail. 9. Sometimes nouns take weird forms and can fool us into thinking they're plural when they're really singular and vice-versa. Words such as glasses, pants, pliers, and scissors are regarded as plural and require plural verbs; unless they're preceded the phrase pair of , in which case the word pair becomes the subject.
Ex: My glasses were on the bed.
Ex: My pants were torn.
Ex: A pair of plaid trousers is in the closet. 10. Some words end in -s and appear to be plural but are really singular and require singular verbs.
Ex: The news from the front is bad.
Ex: Measles is a dangerous disease for pregnant women.
On the other hand, some words ending in -s refer to a single thing but are nonetheless plural and require a plural verb.
Ex: My assets were wiped out in the depression.
Ex: Our thanks go to the workers who supported the union. 11. Fractional expressions such as half of, a part of, a percentage of, a majority of are sometimes singular and sometimes plural, depending on the meaning. Sums and products of mathematical processes are expressed as singular and require singular verbs. The expression more than one takes a singular verb.
Ex: More than one student has tried this.
Ex: Some of the voters are still angry.
Ex: A large percentage of the older population is voting against her.
Ex: Two-fifths of the troops were lost in the battle.
Ex: Two-fifths of the vineyard was destroyed by fire.
Ex: Forty percent of the students are in favor of changing the policy.
Ex: Forty percent of the student body is in favor of changing the policy. 12. If your sentence compounds a positive and a negative subject and one is plural, the other singular, the verb should agree with the positive subject.
Ex: The department members but not the chair have decided not to teach on Valentine's Day.
Ex: It is not the faculty members but the president who decides this issue.

In Romanian, the subject-verb agreement is based on the same rule. The subject is that which dictates the rule of verb conjugation. This agreement consists of the grammatical information of person and number which the subject carries in itself and which is absorbed by the verb-predicate.
The agreement in number consists of the idea that: if the subject is singular, the verb is also singular, and if the subject is plural, the verb is also plural.
Ex: Copilul stie adevarul.( The child knows the truth )
Ex: Acestia au fost acceptati ca martori ai apararii. (They were accepted as witnesses of the defeance)
The agreement in person deals with the verbs, whose subjects are personal pronouns. The subject consisting of personal pronouns eu, tu, noi, voi (I, you, we, you) requires the verb-predicate the proper person.
Ex: Voi stiti ce trebuie sa faceti, eu vreau sa plec la facultate.(You know what you have to do, I want to attend the faculty.)
If the subjects is in the 3rd person singular, then the verb will also take the 3rd form singular.
Ex: El stie ce vrea. (He knows what he wants)
Ex: Ioana pleaca la munte. (Ioana goes to mountains)
Comparing to the English language, in Romanian there are also rules in building constructions based on the subject-verb agreement. Further I would try to give some rules of the subject-verb agreement in Romanian language.
When the grammatical subject is expressed through a collective noun (majoritate, mulţime, grămadă, grup, echipă) the verb is used in plural form.
Ex: O mulţime de oameni au pierit în războiul din Vietnam. (A lot of people have died in the war in Vietnam )
Sometimes, even if the subject is a collective noun, followed by a substantive attribute, the predicate is used in singular form.
Ex: Grupul de turişti a părăsit localitatea. (The group of tourists has left the locality)
The agreement of the verb with a subject expressed through a toponymical noun, pluralia tantum, as Bucureşti, Iaşi, Ploieşti, Galaţi, Olteneşti, which is felt as an unit, can be done both in singular and plural, depending on the meaning.
Ex: Iaşii de acum treisprezece ani rămân în sufletul nostru.
In the same time, such toponymical nouns as Apuseni, Carpaţi, Alpi, requires the plural agreement, being felt as a collectivity.
Ex: Carpaţii sunt împăduriţi. Apusenii sunt pitoreşti.

When the predicate is nearer to the object than to the subject, the agreement through attraction to the object is easier to be justified.
Ex: Casa… bărbatul, fata şi animalele… un căţel şi două pisici somnoroase era toată averea femeii.

When the verb is placed before a compound noun, which elements are nouns in singular, it came into agreement with the first element of the compound noun.
Ex: E acolo mama, tata, fratele, sunt toţi în cameră.
A special construction to pay attention to is „în ce priveşte banii”, „în ceea ce priveşte problemele”. The verb “a privi” should not be used in the plural form because the nouns banii and problemele are objects but not subjects.

Another problems to pay attention to is the agreement of the verb with relatve pronouns cine, care, ce.
Cine and ce use the singular form of the verb, câţi, câte requires the plural form, while care can use both singular and plural forms.
Ex: Cine m-a căutat? Ex: Vreau să ştiu care au asigurare ING.
Ex: Care a venit? Ex: Cine au dărâmat Troia?

All these being said, we can easily deduce that the general rule of subject- verb agreement is characterizing for both languages, still there are exceptions in both languages that depend on the peculiarities of two grammatical systems.

Subject-verb Agreement in English and Romanian

Elaborated by:
Mocanu Maria
EG 41