Fill in the blanks with the simple present tense form of the verbs paying attention to the subject verb agreement. 1. There ______ (be) many beautiful paintings at the exhibition. 2. Sameer________ (run) on the stairs. 3. The butterfly______ (move) quickly from flower to flower.
Answers
Answer:
1. are
2. is running
3. moves
Answer:
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 with third person plural.
He goes to school.
They go to school.
Exceptions
(i) The Verb ‘be’ and its forms are exceptions to this rule :
He is a friend.
I am your friend.
They Eire friends.
(ii) Can, must, may and ought to and the auxiliaries will and shall do not have ‘s’ or ‘es’ with either singular or plural.
He can/must/may/ought to/ will/ shall do it.
They can/must/may/ought to/will/shall do it.
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 ‘f 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.