When to Add “s” to a Verb
If you feel confident about forming plurals in English by adding an “s” or “es” at the end of the word, I’m about to make you feel a little wobbly. Although most noun plurals are formed this way, verb plurals are formed by removing the “s.”
For example, which verb is plural, talk or talks? Because you would say, “He talks,” talks is the singular verb. You would say, “They talk.” Therefore, talk is the plural verb.
Example: The position listed on the university Web site caught my attention because my education, experience, and training closely parallel/parallels your needs.
Answer: This sentence has two sets of subjects and verbs. The first subject/verb combination is position/caught. The second set of subjects is education, experience, and training, which is plural. We would say, “They parallel” so we must write or say, “…my education, experience, and training closely parallel your needs.”
Example: If he or she needs/need me, I will be in the other room.
Answer: In this sentence, he and she are the subjects; however, they are connected by or so we use the singular verb needs.
Pop Quiz
1. When he and Jenny walks/walk to work, they hold hands.
2. They leaves/leave at the end of the year for a month-long vacation.
3. Her dog, cat, and chicken gets/get along well together.
4. When he gets/get angry, his face turns red.
5. She goes/go away every August.
Answers
1. walk (plural)
2. leave (plural)
3. get (plural)
4. gets (singular)
5. goes (singular)
Posted on Saturday, April 14th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
24 Responses to “When to Add “s” to a Verb”
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I want to sit exam this year and i want to have an excellent result. I MY THIS QUESTION CORRECT ?
I don’t understand your request. What are you asking?
I’m not sure why you talk about plural vs singular. What about “I”. I think this sentences is correct:
If I need you, I will call your room.
I understand that “I” is singular and I’m still using the verb without “s”. I learn the rule like “verbs in 3rd person (i.e. he, she, it) should be suffixed with an s”.
Thanks!
This is a very good question! You are correct that “I” is singular and in the case of a 3rd person (he, she, it), the verb should usually be suffixed with an s. In your example, “If I need you, I will call your room,” the verb “call” is singular, but the word “will” is present. In this case, the word “will” is a modal auxiliary verb. It is used in conjunction with the main verb “call.” When an auxiliary verb is there, the verb does not change no matter what the subject is (I will call, you will call, we will call, they will call, he will call, she will call.)
A question on sample SAT test 2 in The Official SAT Study Guide, 2nd Edtion, gives the word “her” as the error in the following sentence:
“Neither Ms. Perez nor Ms. Tanaka believes that watching as much television as her son Sam does will lead to anything productive.” The choices for errors were “nor”, “believes”, “her”, “will lead”, and No Error.
I thought that “believes” is wrong because nearest subject dictates verb tense; thus it should be “believe.” Also, for “her” to be wrong, it must be “their” in which case Ms. Perez and Ms. Tanaka have a son together. Can someone confirm or refute the SAT answer?
I’m not sure what the SAT folks were trying to get at here either. “Her son” doesn’t seem to fit because only one son is named. However, two singular nouns connected by “neither/nor” should take a singular verb like “believes.” So does the SAT suggest that the answer is “Neither Ms. Perez nor Ms. Tanaka believes that watching as much television as their son Sam does will lead to anything productive”? In this case, you are right that we have to presume that they share a son, which is a weird presumption to have to make.
what about the verbs that come after can and to?how we add s to them
We don’t necessarily add an “s” to the verb that comes after “can.”
Example: He can cook.
Often, the word that comes after “do” is a noun and does not have an “s” on it.
Examples: She does the work of two people. The two of them do the work of four people.
Thank you so much!
You are welcome!
How about sentences that uses ‘May’ – example: May he answers or May he answer?
The word “may” in this case is a modal auxiliary verb. It is used in conjunction with the main verb “answer” in your example. Normally the verb would change spelling in the third person singular case (I answer, we answer, they answer but he answers, she answers). When the modal auxiliary is there, the word “answer” does not change no matter what the subject is (I may answer, you may answer, they may answer, he may answer, she may answer). The correct usage would be “May he answer?”
What about ‘people/the world/everyone/no one’ ?? is there an ‘s’ behind every verb?
People is plural, so you do not add an s after the verb.
The world is singular, so it does take an s after the verb.
Everyone and no one are indefinite pronouns, and are considered singular, so you do add an s.
Just wondering how did the rule come to be that there should be a “s” added to verbs when the subject is singular, and no “s” when the subject is plural? What’s the reasoning behind setting up that rule in the English language? (I’m aware of the ‘sounding right’ part, but what made the language folks decide that there should be a “s” for singular verbs etc?)
Thanks
I really don’t know the answer to your question. Languages evolve over time. Maybe there is a language historian or linguist out there that can offer an answer to this question.
if we must use s with singular verbs so why we dont use s with I :for instance I goes but we say he goes or my family goes how we can explain it with I,thanks
The subject-verb agreement rules apply to all personal pronouns except I and you. Even though these pronouns are singular, they require plural forms of verbs.
and my next question is that why we suppose that the word family is singular but the word people is plural,thanks again
Family is a singular noun because it acts as a single unit. Its plural is families. The word people is plural as it is synonymous with persons, individuals, or human beings.
I teach adult ESL classes. I don’t know how to explain the verb tense when using, ‘family’. If ‘they’needs a singular verb, why does ‘family’(they) use a plural verb. ‘The family works’, but, ‘They work’.
The word they is plural. The plural form for the verb work is work (They work, we work). The word family is singular because it acts as a single unit. The singular form for work is works (He works, she works). The plural form of family is families.
Wow! I learned a lot especially because of the comments together with your answers.
This resource is exactly what I’m looking for.
You seem to be pretty good in English. =)
I am glad you found our website helpful!