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Parenthesis Concord

Sometimes, some words may come between the subject of a sentence and the verb. Such words may hinder us from getting or selecting the appropriate verb that will agree with the subject. The obstructing information is what we refer to as parenthesis.

Examples:

1.  John, not his parents and siblings ____ around a. is b. are c. am

The answer is a 'is' because (not his parents and siblings) is the parenthetic information while 'John' is the subject and it is singular.

2.  It is I who ____ responsible for the quarrel.

To get the answer, we need to look for the subject requiring the 'x-verb' i.e. the verb we are looking for. Let us bracket the following words in the sentence.

(It) (is) I (who) am responsible for the quarrel

It is wrong to say: It is I who is responsible... It may sound 'sweeter' as some people would say or more pleasant, but it is wrong because the pronoun 'I' cannot agree with the auxiliary verb 'is', We cannot say: 'I is responsible'.

Only the auxiliary 'am' and its past tense 'was' should go with 'I' in this instance, except in a subjunctive relationship which will be discussed later.

3.  It is you who ____ being expected at the party a. am b. is c. are

Many students or speakers of English will take 'is' as answer thereby having:

'It is you who is being expected at the party' (wrong)

Let us use the same method as we have used earlier.

(It) (is) you (who) are being expected at the party.

'You' cannot agree with the auxiliary verb 'is' because it is regarded or used as a plural pronoun therefore, option c 'are' being a plural verb is the answer.

Also note these examples:

- (Not only John but even) his parents are good people.

- (Not only the teachers but even) the principal teaches well.

Subordination Concord

Subordination concord involves the use of subordinating conjunctions to join more than one subjects together. The rules stipulates that when a subordinating conjunction joins two subjects together, they are taken as one therefore, they take a singular verb. Examples of subordinating conjunctions or subordinators include: with, as well as, alongside, along with, together with, in conjunction with, in collaboration with, including, like, etc.

Examples:

i. Mr. Akpan with his children is traveling abroad. (Not 'are traveling...')

ii. The principal alongside the bursar steals money. (Not 'steal...')

iii. John as well as Mary sleeps late at night. (Not 'sleep...')

It should be noted that the determining subject is the first subject. The second is merely an attachment or a subordinate embedded in the first. Therefore, if the first subject is plural, the verb becomes plural.

Example: The teachers together with the principal travel every summer.

The verb 'travel' is plural because the first subject 'teachers' is plural.

Coordination Concord

This type of concord involves the use of coordinating conjunctions or coordinators to join more than one subject together. The rule stipulates that when two subjects are joined with coordinators, the verb is plural. A major example of coordinators is 'and'.

Example: Ojo and Ada are friends.

Note that this law only applies when the subjects refer to separate people or things. This means that sometimes, more than one subject can have the same identity.

For example: The pastor and president of the church ____ around. a. is b. are

The answer is 'a' and this is so because the 'pastor' and 'president' refer to the same person. The absence of article 'the' before the second subject'president' accounts for this assumption. Therefore, since the two coordinated subjects are having the same identity, they take a singular verb.

In the next article we will be treating topic on Words Often Misused.