2.1. Compound Nouns and Subject-verb Agreement
Listening Exercise 1.3 on page 39
Exercise 1.4 on page 39 on Wordwall:
https://wordwall.net/es/resource/108700376
Presentation of compound nouns
Compound Nouns and Subject-Verb agreement
The first noun in a compound usually has a singular form,
even if it has a plural meaning decision-making
Instead of a compound noun we can use:
1.
noun + 's + noun when the first noun is the user
of the second noun: a women's clinic, a boys' school
2.
noun + preposition + noun: a book about energy
conservation, a book about grammar (a grammar book is more common)
We can sometimes use noun + + noun or noun + of + noun with
a similar meaning: the charity's aim or the aim of the charity
We are more likely to use noun + 's + noun when the first
noun refers to a particular person or group of people or to talk about time:
Mike's job, next year's field trip
We more often use noun + of + noun:
1.
when the second noun is a non-living thing: the
title of the CD
2.
when we talk about a process or change over time:
the destruction of the rainforest
3.
with a long noun phrase: Mike is the brother of
someone.
Subject—verb agreement
Some nouns with a singular form, referring to a group (e.g.
government, class, department team), can be used with either a singular or
plural form of the verb, although in formal contexts a singular verb is often
preferred: The government has (or have) introduced some really interesting
projects.
We usually use a singular verb:
1.
when names and titles (e.g. of countries,
newspapers, books, films) ending in -s refer to a single unit: The Netherlands
has begun to tackle the problem.
2.
with a phrase referring to a measurement, amount
or quantity Only a few miles separates the villages.
3.
after percent (also per cent or %) referring to
a singular or uncountable noun: ... 10% of the country's energy comes from wind
power
4.
But if percent refers to a plural noun we use a
plural verb: ... 60% of people there are malnourished.
We usually use a plural verb:
1.
with nouns that normally have a plural form:
congratulations, outskirts, clothes. But note that the following nouns ending
in -s take a singular verb — news, linguistics, mathematics, physics, politics,
statistics and economics when they refer to the academic subject Statistics is
included in the course.
2.
after a/the majority of, a/the minority of, a
number of, a lot of, plenty of, all (of), some of + a plural noun / pronoun:
The majority of people there are farmers. But note that we use a singular verb
with the number of The number of people suffering from malnutrition is
increasing.
The following verb must agree with
the main noun in a sentence with a complex subject: Levels of income from the
sale of handicrafts have increased.
When the subject follows the verb,
the verb agrees with the subject Among the projects invested in by the
government is the use of low-energy fight bulbs.
Collaborative Exercise on Wordwall:
https://wordwall.net/es/resource/109009148
Exercise 3.3 on page 44
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