{"id":42,"date":"2007-04-14T20:44:30","date_gmt":"2007-04-14T20:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=42"},"modified":"2021-12-20T16:12:51","modified_gmt":"2021-12-20T22:12:51","slug":"when-to-add-s-to-a-verb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/pronouns\/when-to-add-s-to-a-verb\/","title":{"rendered":"When to Add s<\/em> to a Verb"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our review of English verbs has included discussion of\u00a0when to add\u00a0e<\/em>s\u00a0<\/em>to a verb<\/a>. You might also wonder when to add s\u00a0<\/em>to the end of a verb.<\/p>\n

With verbs, only those with a third-person singular<\/strong> noun or pronoun (he, she, boat, courage<\/em>) as a subject add an s<\/em> to the end. Verbs with plural nouns and pronouns do not add s <\/em>at the end. (The singular pronouns I<\/em> and you <\/em>likewise do not add an s <\/em>to the verb.)<\/p>\n

Let’s consider an example. Which verb is plural: talk<\/em> or talks<\/em>?<\/p>\n

We would say \u201che talks,\u201d and he<\/em> is a third-person singular pronoun, so talks<\/em> (with an s<\/em>) is a singular verb.<\/p>\n

We would say \u201cthe people talk,\u201d and people<\/em> is a plural noun, so talk<\/em> (no s<\/em>) is a plural verb.<\/p>\n

Let’s look at another example:<\/p>\n

My education, experience, and training <\/em>[equal \/ equals] what the employer <\/em>[need \/ needs].<\/p>\n

This sentence has two sets of subjects and verbs. The first subject is education, experience, and training<\/em>, which is plural. We would say “they equal,” so the correct verb for the first subject is the plural form, equal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The second subject is employer,<\/em> which is singular. We would say \u201cshe equals,\u201d so the correct verb for the second subject is the singular form, needs. <\/em><\/p>\n

Here’s one more example:<\/p>\n

If he or she <\/em>[look \/ looks] for me, I will be in the other room.<\/em><\/p>\n

In this sentence, he<\/em> and she<\/em> are the subjects; however, because they are connected by or,<\/em> they are both singular, so we use the singular verb needs<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Note also that when a verb is paired with a helping (auxiliary) verb<\/a> such as do, can,<\/em> or should<\/em>, the main verb does not change:<\/p>\n

My education, experience, and training do<\/span> equal<\/span> what the employer needs.
\nThe people can<\/span> talk<\/span>.\u00a0<\/em>
\nIf he should<\/span> look<\/span> for me, I will be in the other room.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pop Quiz<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. When he and Jenny [walks \/ walk] to work, they hold hands.
\n2. They [leaves \/ leave] at the end of the year for a month-long vacation.
\n3. Her dog, cat, and chicken [gets \/ get] along well together.
\n4. When he [gets \/ get] angry, his face turns red.
\n5. She [goes \/ go] away every August.
\n
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pop Quiz Answers<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. When he and Jenny walk<\/strong> to work, they hold hands.
\n2. They leave<\/strong> at the end of the year for a month-long vacation.
\n3. Her dog, cat, and chicken get<\/strong> along well together.
\n4. When he gets<\/strong> angry, his face turns red.
\n5. She goes<\/strong> away every August.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our review of English verbs has included discussion of\u00a0when to add\u00a0es\u00a0to a verb. You might also wonder when to add s\u00a0to the end of a verb. With verbs, only those with a third-person singular noun or pronoun (he, she, boat, courage) as a subject add an s to the end. Verbs with plural nouns and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,26,43,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pronouns","category-singular-vs-plural","category-subject-and-verb-agreement","category-verbs"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5725,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions\/5725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}