NCERT Solution Class 8th English Grammar – Agreement of Verb and Subject

NCERT Solution Class 8th English Grammar – Agreement of Verb and Subject

NCERT Solution Class 8th English Grammar – Agreement of Verb and Subject

English Grammar

Agreement of Verb and Subject

English Grammar With Answers

Present Tense
A verb must agree in number and person with its subject.

(a) When the subject is third person singular, most English verbs end in -s or -es but there is no -s or -es on third person plural.

He goes to school.
They go to school.
Sita goes to school.
Sita and Rama go to school.
You eat a mango.
Ram eats a mango.
Exceptions

(i) The verb ‘be’ and its forms are exception to this rule :

He is a friend.
I am your friend.
They are friends.

(ii) Can, must, may and ought and the auxiliaries will and shall do not have ‘s’ on either singular or plural.

What the master will ask, the servant shall do.
What the masters will ask, the servants shall do.
When ‘will’ is a full verb meaning desire, it follows the rule for most other verbs and takes ‘-s’ when the subject is third person singular.
Whatever God wills, man cannot alter.
Verbs that end with ‘y and have a consonant before this ‘y\ the ‘y’ changes into T and ‘-es is added if the subject is third person singular.
Ram relies on me.
He tries his best.
He flies a kite.

(b) A singular subject is sometimes mistaken as plural e.g. when it starts with (one of, either, neither etc.). Remember that these must be taken as singular.

Either of you is wrong.
Neither of them works here.
One of the teachers teaches English.

(c) When a sentence begins with ‘there’ the verb agrees with the real subject that comes after the verb.

There comes John.
There are fifty students in my class.

(d) When the subject is plural but represents a single figure or quantity, it takes a singular verb.

A hundred kilometres is a long distance.
A thousand rupees is not much these days.
Dal and roti is a common North-Indian food.
A Thousand Leagues Under The Sea is a famous novel.

Exercise 1

(Solved) Insert the correct form of the verbs in the blank spaces in the following sentences :

1. A good dictionary ……… a lot. (cost)
2. These five chairs ………. one thousand rupees. (cost)
3. Ten kilometres ……… a long distance to walk. (be)
4. Sita ……… next to my house. (live)
5. Bread and butter …….. a wholesome food. (be)
6. One of these three boys ……….. first in his class every year. (stand)
7. My kite ……….. very high in the sky. (fly)
8. They ……… gloomy. (lok)
9. All the students in this school ………. English. (learn)
10. My lawn ……… very beautiful in spring. (look)

Answer:
1. costs
2. cost
3. is
4. lives
5. is
6. stands
7. flies
8. look
9. learn

Exercise 2

(Solved) Insert is’ or are’ in the following sentences :

1. There ……… two boys standing there.
2. There ………. many students in the school.
3. Today, there ………. many boys missing from the class.
4. If you need some money, there ………. some in my coat pocket.
5. There ……….. sixteen players selected to tour Australia.
6. There ………. a proper balance of emotions and intelligence in him.
7. There …….. nothing to be so happy about.
8. ……….. there anybody there ?
9. There ……….. no light here.
10. There ……… complete darkness inside.

Answer:
1. are
2. are
3. are
4. is
5. are
6. is
7. is
8. is
9. is
10. is

Exercise 3

(Solved) Insert the correct form of the present tense in the blank spaces. The verbs are in the brackets.

1. A new house ……. a lot of money. (cost)
2. The new car …….. very fast. (run)
3. Most things ………. more than they did before. (cost)
4. This aeroplane ……… quicker than sound. (fly)
5. The lawn ……… beautiful in summer. (look)
6. These children ……… very healthy. (look)
7. One of the players ……… from my village. (come)
8. These people …….. to us in their own cars. (come)

Answer:
1. costs
2. runs
3. cost
4. flies
5. looks
6. look
7. comes
8. come

Exercise 4

(Solved) Rearrange the following into meaningful sentences :

1. all the pupils / English / in our school / learn
Answer: All the pupils in our school learn English.

2. the owner / lives / is / in a large house / and / very rich
Answer: The owner is very rich and lives in a large house.

3. Some people / as it / travelling / them sea-sick / dislike / makes / by sea
Answer: Some people dislike travelling by sea as it makes them sea-sick.

4. to walk / a long way / is / ten miles
Answer: Ten miles is a long way to walk.

5. The Rose / And / Crown / High Street / situated / is / in / the
Answer: The Rose and Crown is situated in the High Street.

Exercise 5

(Solved) The following passage has not been edited. There is one error in each line. Write the incorrect word and the correction in your answer sheet. Underline your correction.

It is on small matters the people passed judgement (a) ______
upon ourselves and declared that we are (b) ______
civilized or not. The great opportunities comes rarely. (c) ______
I hoped my friend will think on it. In that (d) ______
case I thought we will be able to live more peacefully. (e) ______

Answer:
(a) passed — pass
(b) declared — declare
(c) comes — come
(d) hoped — hope
(e) thought — think

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