Kwame Nkrumah University of

Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

Concord in English

Department of English
KNUST, Kumasi
 Kwame Nkrumah University of
Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

Amos 3:3: Can two walk together,

except they agree?
 Attempt the sentences below and identify any
error you may find.

1. One of the alumnae told the students that he (she) would

support them. (Noun-Pronoun Concord in terms of Gender, or
Gender Concord)
2. Universities in Ghana must endeavour to help the communities
that surround it (them). (Noun-Pronoun Concord in terms of
Number)
3. The MP for one of the newly created constituencies promised
that she will (would) never disappoint her constituents. (Verb-
Verb Concord, Sequence of Tenses/Tense Harmony)
4. A lot of (determiner) the phenomenon (phenomena) (noun)
discussed in textbooks in Ghana are alien to the students.
(Determiner-Noun Concord)
5. Two years ago, many students of one of the renowned
universities in Ghana obtain (obtained) scholarships for
their doctoral studies. (Adjunct/Adverbial-Verb
Concord)
6. Because they were aware of the potentials of Dr.
Goodworks, they appointed him (object) president(s)
(complement) of the association. (Object-Complement
Concord)
7. The Honourable Minister is the chairperson(s) of the Ghana
Peacelovers Union. (Subject-Complement Concord)
8. The lecturer instructed the course representative to share a book
to the students (Verb-Object Concord)
9. The chief of the town champion(s) developmental programmes in
his traditional area. (Subject-Verb Concord)
 What then is Concord?
• Concord simply means agreement. In English
grammar, it is an agreement between two units in a
sentence in terms of number, person, and gender.
• The headmaster, who knew what must be done
concerning the development of the school asked
the PTA to rally behind him to help realize the
dreams of the school.
There is an agreement between the noun
‘headmaster’ and the pronoun ‘him’ in terms of
gender.
 Forms of subject-verb concord 1

• Notional Concord: This is sometimes called notional

agreement, which means applying subject verb
agreement rules according to the intended meaning
rather than to syntax.
•  The verb agrees with its subject according to the
semantics of the noun rather than its form
• This is subjective because the number of the subject
is determined by the intention of the speakers.
Example include collective nouns (e.g. team,
committee), pronouns like ‘all’, ‘none’, etc.
 Examples

• The committee are discussing a tight budget.

• Hearts of Oak is playing very well in the game.
• Hearts of Oak are playing very well in the
game. 
 Forms of subject-verb concord 2
Situational/pragmatic agreement:
Under this form of concord, the number of the subject is
determined by the context (co-text) of use. The subject-
verb agreement rules are applied according to the context
within which the subject occurs.
Classes of nouns that in this case include those that are
“plural in form” and ‘zero’ plural nouns. Nouns that don't
change in their plural forms (called “zero plurals”) include
“series,” “aircraft” and “species.”

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 More on Situational Agreement
Certain words ending in -ics are singular
when they refer to principles, a system, or a
field of study. In these instances, the noun
takes a singular verb. However, when these
nouns refer to individual practice or
application or activities, they generally take a
plural verb

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 Examples

Words Plural in form Zero Plural Nouns

• News Series • Information
• Statistics Economics • Furniture
• PhysicsMathematics
•
• Salmon
Ethics Politics
• Measles Mumps • Sheep
• Calculus Rickets, • grouse
• Billiards Molasses
• Dizziness Electronics
• Aerodynamics Thermodynamics
• Mechanics Aesthetics
• Aerobics Calisthenics
 Examples
SINGULAR: Statistics is a required course for doctoral
students.
PLURAL: The statistics on child abuse are alarming.
Statistics is not my favorite subject.
(In this sentence, statistics indicates a field of study.)
BUT:
Statistics show that divorce is a common practice in our
society.
(In this sentence, statistics is plural—multiple data about
divorce.)
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Forms of subject-verb concord 3

• Grammatical concord: It refers to

the agreement between a subject
and a verb in terms of number.
This is objective because there
are markers of singularity and
plurality.
Summary on the forms of Concord

• Notional concord depends on the

user of the language.
• Situational concord depends on
the context of use.
• Grammatical concord depends on
rules.
 Subject (S)-Verb Concord(VC)
Important things to note:
1. Subject verb concord is applicable to verbs in their present
tense (except the verbs ‘to be’ –’am’, ‘is’ and ‘are’, which
have their past marking concord) E.g. He was; They were…
2. Concerning personal pronouns, S-VC concerns only third
person pronouns (i.e. it, he, she).
3. In most cases the subject comes before the verb but in
some cases too the verb comes before the subject.
E.g. In the room are (plural verb) the boys (plural subject).
4. In S-V disagreement, the correction is done backwards.
5. Only the SUBJECT affects the verb!
 Subject-Verb Concord Rules
1. A singular subject requires a singular verb
(SS : SV).
E.g. The Doctor (singular subject) acts
(singular verb) professionally.
2. A plural subject requires a plural verb(PS :
PV).
E.g. Serious students (plural subject) admire
(plural verb) disciplined teachers.
 What are singular and plural subjects?
• Units that can function as subject:
1. Noun phrases: The students are brilliant.
2. Pronouns: They understand summum
bonum.
3. Nominal adjectives: The rich are always
happy.
3. Nominal clauses: What he said is true.
• The category of number is based on the functional
opposition of two forms of the noun: singular or
plural.
• The singular form is used to refer to a single
referent: I have a book.
• The plural form is used to refer to a group referent
of two or more members: She has five books.
• The semantic opposition of one or more than one
is characteristic of countable nouns only
 Defining singular and plural subjects
• “S” (Plural Maker)
Whenever the plural marker ‘s’ (es, or other
variants for irregular nouns) is added to a
noun, the noun becomes plural. Such a
noun when used as a subject becomes a
plural subject.
PS = A subject with the plural maker ‘s’.
SS = A subject without the plural marker ‘s’.
 Examples
1.The country belongs
to all. (singular subject)
2.The books are
affordable. (plural
subject)
 Singular vs. Plural Verbs
• “S” (Singular marker)
• Any verb without the singular marker
‘S’, or its variants (‘es’) is a plural verb.
(e.g. pray, sing, counsel,…)
• A singular verb is the one with the
singulars maker ‘s’ (e.g. prays, sings,
counsels, …)
 When does Subject-Verb Disagreement Occur?

1. When both the singular and plural marker ‘Ses’ are present.

s s
2. Example 1: The student (plural marker) visit (singular marker) the library
everyday.
PS vs. SV
2. When both the singular and plural marker ‘Ses’ are absent.

Example 2: The student # visit# the library everyday.

SS vs. PV
THE GUIDING PRINCIPLE IS “ONE AT A TIME”
 Question From Students

Why "God bless

you” but not “God
blesses you”.
 Application of Concord Rules

• When AND is used to join elements which

jointly refer to one unit, the structure selects a
singular verb (see the examples as follows in
the slides).
A. When AND connects two or more entities
referring to a meal, the structure is
considered singular and hence accepts a
singular verb.
E.g. 1: Rice AND soup with elephant meat is
delicious.
B. When AND is used in a name/title of any entity
like company or book, the structure is regarded
singular.
E.g. 2: Heaven AND Haven Company Limited deals
in building materials.
C. When AND connects two or more singular
countable nouns with one determiner, the
structure selects as singular verb.
• Example: The banker and teacher is
approachable. (But: The banker and the
teacher are approachable).
D. When AND connects synonyms, the structure
selects a singular verb.
• Example: Power and might belongs to God.
 Correlative (or Compound) Conjunctions (CC)
2. Correlative conjunctions in class are: neither…nor,
either…or, not only…but also…; whether…or…
These conjunctions connect two or more structures that
function as a subject in a sentence.
E.g. Not only the teacher (singular structure) but also his
students (plural structure) understand(s) the motto of
the school.
To resolve this, we resort to Proximity Concord Rule,
which says that in situations related to CC we must
consider the noun phrase (NP) that is closer to the verb
to determine the number of the verb. The verb in the
sentence above will be ‘UNDERSTAND’.
 Further example on CC

• Either the students

(NP1) or the lecturer
(NP2) speaks French.
3. Pseudo/quasi/false-conjunctions
These include ‘along with’, ‘rather than’, ‘with’,
‘plus’, ‘as well as’, ‘in conjunction with’, ‘in
collaboration with’, ‘in addition to’, …
Whenever any of these conjunctions connects two
NPs the verb agrees with the NP far from it. This
is the opposite of proximity concord, hence may
be called remote concord.
E.g. The teachers as well as the School Prefect
travel every term.
 Further example on quasi-
conjunction
• The students (NP1) as
well as the lecturer
(NP2) speak French.
 Relative clause
• They are always introduced by a relative pronoun (e.g.
‘who’, ‘which’, ‘that’, ‘whom’ and ‘whose’)
• E.g. The students who know the history of KNUST ...
Steps
1. Identify the relative clause.
2. Identity the relative pronoun (RP)
3. Identify the antecedent (the noun that is replaced by the
RP) of the RP.
4. Determine the number of the antecedent.
5. Determine the number of the RP.
6. Determine the number of the verb (singular or plural).
 Still on Relative Clause

• Singular Antecedent + Singular

Relative Pronoun + Singular Verb
(SSS)
• Plural Antecedent + Plural
Relative Pronoun + Plural Verb
(PPP)
 Complex Subject
• The formula: (D) + (Pm1) + H + (Pm2)
• D = Determiner; Pm1 = Pre-modifier; H =
Headword; Pm2 = Post-modifier
• In a situation like this, it is the Headword that
determines the number of the verb.
E.g. The newly elected first female Vice Chancellor
of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and
Technology, who is a Professor in
pharmaceutical sciences relates well with all
manner of people.
 Subject

• Simple subject : Always contains one word.

Example: Mathematics is my favourite
subject.
• Complex subject: Contains more than one
word.
Example: The students from Togo are
friendly.
Steps in dealing with Complex Subject

• Step 1: Identify the noun phrase, which

functions as the subject.
• Step 2: Identify the headword of the noun
phrase
• Step 3: Determine the number of the
headword.
• Step 4: Determine the number of the verb
(singular or plural).
It is good news that the COVID-19 vaccine has arrived. Thankfully, delivery was
made possible after a consignment of doses was cleared by the Indian government
and drug manufacturers for COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX)
member countries. After a year of global disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with
more than 80,700 Ghanaians getting infected with the virus and over 580 lost lives, the path to
recovery for the people of Ghana can finally begin. With the arrival of the vaccine, we expect that
within the next few weeks the remaining quantities will come in to make up the full complement
needed to vaccinate the first batch of eligible people. By October, the country plans to reach a herd
immunity of vaccinating 20 million people.
The 600,000 doses of Covishield, the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum
Institute of India, one of the vaccines the government has ordered, arrived at the Kotoka
International Airport at 7:45 a.m. yesterday. This is a phenomenal win for South-South cooperation
and we laud the Indian government for this show of support and its unalloyed commitment to the
cooperation as well as fulfilling its commitment to help the world with the COVID-19 vaccine.
Indeed, India is proving to the world that it is not paying lip service to the fight against COVID-19
but taking a frontline position on the global stage in dealing with the deadly pandemic through the
production of the vaccine. As we have started taking delivery of the vaccine, we need a lot more
information, not only on its efficacy but also the comprehensive programme for the nationwide
vaccination. Many people are giving various interpretations to the vaccines — some positive and
others very negative.
‘A number of’… vs. ‘The number of’
…
• A number of…always requires a
plural verb; The number of … also
selects a singular verb.
E.g. A number of the students know
their rights but the number of those
who do not is very alarming.
Most indefinite pronouns take singular
verbs

one body thing

someone somebody something
anyone anybody anything
No one nobody nothing
everyone everybody everything
• Use a singular verb when two or more
subjects connected by “and” are preceded by
“each, many a, every, or many an.”
• Examples: Every computer, printer, and fax
machine is marked for sale. Many a woman
and man has responded to our plea for
voluntary donations.
 Nouns

Acoustics Barracks
News Athletics
Statistics Tidings
Economics calculus
Gallows Politics
Mumps Ethics
Measles physics
Whereabouts Pragmatics
Tactics
Acoustics Barracks
News Athletics
Statistics Tidings
Economics calculus
Gallows Politics
Mumps Ethics
Measles physics
Whereabouts Pragmatics
Tactics Aerodynamics
Electronics
Mechanics
• It is usually said that these nouns ALWAYS
require singular verbs BUT their number is
determined by the CONTEXT within which
they are used.
Example: The politics in Ghana and Nigeria are
(not IS) different.
SINGULAR: Statistics is a required course for
undergraduate students
PLURAL: The statistics on female enrolment in
our public universities are encouraging.
 Causes of concord errors
1. Ignorance of the rules. Some learners familiar with the
general concord rules and their exceptions.
2. Overgeneralization of rules. Learners may not be aware of
the exceptions to the applications of the rules.
3. Forgetfulness: This occurs when there are intervening words
between the subject and the main verb in the sentence.
Hence, one forgets the number of the subject.
4. Difficulty in distinguishing between ‘grammatical’ and
‘pragmatic’ singular or plural subjects
5. Incomplete application of rules
6. Carelessness
7. Ignorance of the plural and singular forms of word, especially
irregular nouns such as phenomenon, alumnus, etc.
 How to correct concord errors

1. Find the subject and the verb and ensure

they agree
2. Ignore all intervening words between the
subject and the verb because they do not
affect agreement
 In-Class Assignment

• Select the option with no form of concord

errors
• 1.
A. One of the students who read IT is here.
B. One of the students who reads IT is here.
C. One of the students who read IT are here.
D. One of the students who reads IT are here.
 Students’ Take Home Assignment

Outline thirty (30) instances of

subject-verb concord rules
application.
Deadline: 20th March, 2021.
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