This document provides an overview of subjects, verbs, and subject-verb agreement in three chapters: 1. It defines subjects and verbs, explains how to identify them in sentences, and discusses different types of verbs such as action verbs, linking verbs, and helping verbs. 2. It covers irregular verbs and how to identify the past tense and past participle forms, including examples of common irregular verbs. 3. It explains the rules of subject-verb agreement, including how to determine the correct verb form when the subject and verb are separated by prepositional phrases or when the subject is compound. Examples are provided to illustrate these concepts.

1. ENGLISH ESSENTIALS
E. Buchanan

2. CH. 1 SUBJECTS & VERBS

3. Ch. 1 Subjects and Verbs
• What is the subject of a sentence?
• It is the person, place, thing, or idea that the sentence is
about.
• The subject is also called the ―who or what‖ word.
• To find the subject, ask yourself, ―Who or what is this
sentence about?‖ OR ―Who or what is doing something in
this sentence.‖

4. Ch. 1 Subjects and Verbs
• Who is the subject in the following sentences?
• Luis is studying.
• Mary is reading Double Luck
• Luis is what the first sentence is about. He is the ―who‖
that is doing something…studying. The second sentence
also answers the questions of ―Who is doing something in
the sentence?‖ The answer is Mary. Mary is the person
that is reading Double Luck.

5. Ch. 1 Subjects and Verbs
• What part of speech is a subject?
• A subject will always be a noun or a pronoun.
• What is a noun?
• A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or idea.
• What is a pronoun?
• A pronoun is a word that stands for a noun
• I, you, he, she, it, we, they

6. Verbs
• What do verbs do?
• Verbs express action
• They tell what the subject is doing
• You can find an action verb by asking ―What does the subject do?‖
• Let’s look at the sentences from the first slide.
• Luis is studying.
• Mary is reading Double Luck
• What is Luis doing?
• Studying (the verb)
• What is Mary doing?
• Reading (the verb)

7. Linking Verbs
• Some verbs do not show action.
• They are called linking verbs.
• Linking verbs like is, are, was, and were join (or link) the subject
to something that is said about the subject.
• For example, in the sentence Mrs. Buchanan is a teacher, the
linking verb is connects the subject Mrs. Buchanan with what is
said about her – that she is a teacher.

8. Helping Verbs
• Some verbs consist of more than one word—a helping
verb plus the main verb. Here are some examples of
verbs containing more than one word:
1. Valeria has written the answer on the board.
• The verb is has written
2. The plane was landing slowly on the tarmac.
• The verb is was landing

9. Helping Verbs
• The verb of a sentence never begins with to. For
example:
1. Julie is going to write the answer on the board.
• The verb of the sentence is is going. It is not write or to write.
2. The balloons seemed to hang in the air.
• The verb of the sentence is seemed. It is not hang or to hang.
Here are some helping verbs:
Forms of he
Be, am, is, are, was, were, being, been
Forms of have
Have has had
Forms of do
do, does, did
Special verbs
Can, could, may, might, just, ought (to), shall,
should, will, would

10. Prepositional Phrases
• A prepositional phrase is a group of words that begins
with a preposition and ends with a noun. Common
prepositions are:
About, after, as, at, before, between, by, during, for,
from, in, into, like, of, on, outside, over, through, to,
toward, with, and without
• As you look for the subject of a sentence, it may help to
cross out any prepositional phrases that you find.
• The coffee from the leaking pot stained the carpet.
• One of my classmates fell asleep during class.
• The woman on that motorcycle has no helmet
• The cracks and booms during the thunderstorm were scary.

11. Let’s practice
• Write out the sentence below. Then cross out the
prepositional phrases. Next underline the subject of each
sentence once and the verb of each sentence twice.
• Dogs at the animal shelter wait for a good home.
• Dogs at the animal shelter wait for a good home

12. More Practice
• Write out the sentence below. Then cross out the
prepositional phrases. Next underline the subject of each
sentence once and the verb of each sentence twice.
• The frozen fish on the counter defrosted quickly.
• The frozen fish on the counter defrosted quickly

13. More Practice
• Write out the sentence below. Then cross out the
prepositional phrases. Next underline the subject of each
sentence once and the verb of each sentence twice.
• The computer’s screen went blank without warning.
• The computer’s screen went blank without warning.

14. CH. 2 IRREGULAR VERBS

15. Ch. 2 Irregular Verbs
• Most English verbs are regular.
• They form their past tense and past participle by adding
• -ed or –d to the basic form.
Basic Form
Past Tense
Past Participle
Ask
Asked
Asked
Raise
Raised
raised
• Some English verbs are irregular. They do not form their past
tense and past participle by adding –ed or –d to the basic form of
the verb. Instead, their past tenses and past participles are formed
in other ways.
• Please look at the table on page 9 of EE.

16. Ch. 2 Irregular Verbs
• Sometimes the verb of a sentence consists of more than
one word.
• In these cases the main verb will be joined by one or
more helping verbs.
• I should have gone to bed earlier last night.
• In the above, the main verb is gone.
• The helping verbs are should and have.
• Other common helping verbs include:
be
can
could
do
has
may
must
will

17. Ch. 2 Irregular Verbs
• When you use the chart on page 9, remember the
following:
• If your sentence does not have a helping verb, choose the past
tense form.
• I ate a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich
• If the sentence does have a helping verb, choose the past
participle.
• I had eaten a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich.
• If you think a verb is irregular, and it is not on the list on
page 9, look it up in your dictionary!
• If it is irregular, the principal parts will be listed.

18. Three Problem Verbs, P. 10
• Three common irregular verbs that confuse many writers
are be, do, and have. Here the correct past tense and
past tense forms of these three verbs.
• Let’s complete the practice on Page 10.

19. CHAPTER 3 SUBJECT
VERB AGREEMENT

20. Ch. 3 Subject-Verb Agreement
• In a correctly written sentence, the subject and verb agree
(match) in number.
• Singular subjects have singular verbs.
• Plural subjects have plural verbs.
• Our baby sleeps more than ten hours a day. Some babies sleep
even longer.

21. Words Between the Subject and the Verb
• Unfortunately, not all sentences are as straightforward as
the ―baby‖ examples.
• A verb often comes right after its subject. For example:
• The sealed boxes belong to my brother.
• However, at times the subject and verb are separated by
a prepositional phrase.
• A prepositional phrase (which we learned earlier) is a
group of words that begins with a preposition and ends
with a noun or pronoun (remember this – it will be on a
quiz!).
• Who can give me a word that is a preposition?

22. Prepositions
• These are also listed on page 144 in EE.
About
Before
Down
Like
To
Above
Behind
During
Of
Toward
Across
Below
Except
Off
Under
After
Beneath
For
On
Up
Among
Beside
From
Over
With
Around
Between
In
Since
Without
At
By
Into
Though

23. Let’s look at some examples
• A small bag of potato chips contains 440 calories.
• In the above sentence the subject and verb are separated
by the propositional phrase of potato chips.
• The verb must agree with the singular subject bag—not
with a word in the prepositional phrase.
• The tomatoes in this salad are brown and mushy.
• What is the subject? Verb? Prepositional phrase?
• Because the subject, tomatoes, is plural, the verb must
also be plural. The prepositional phrase in this salad has
no effect on subject and verb agreement.

24. Compound Subjects
• A compound subject is made up of two nouns connected
by a joining word.
• Subjects joined by and generally take a plural verb.
• Running and lifting weights are good ways to keep in shape.
• Fear and ignorance have a lot to do with hatred.
• Let’s practice – page 16.