Hello there, and welcome back to "The English
Quarters"!
This is Sir Dee and I welcome you to the fifth
episode of our SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT series!
Before we move on, as always, here are some
reminders:
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If you missed the last episode or if you want
to check out the source document for this series, we got you covered!
Those are linked in the description box below.
And yes, some final reminders:
Please take the lessons at your own pace!
Feel free to pause the video when you feel
the need to!
Remember that subjects will appear in blue
and verbs will appear in yellow!
And last, but not least, please enjoy learning!
Well, with things out of the way, let's start.
This episode will discuss the rule about predicate
nominatives.
That's Rule #5 on our source document.
And I quote:
"The verb agrees with its subject, not with
the predicate nominative."
"Uhh, Sir Dee, what is a predicate nominative?"
"Oh! Let me explain."
A predicate nominative is a word (or a group
of words) that renames, classifies, and/or
provides more information about the subject.
It is usually placed after a linking verb.
Also, take note that the predicate nominative
is always a noun, a pronoun, or a noun phrase.
On the other hand, a predicate adjective is
not a noun or a pronoun.
Obviously, it's an adjective.
Check the examples on the screen to see the
difference.
John is a student.
John is smart.
While both "a student" and "smart" tell more
about the subject, "student" is a noun and
"smart" is an adjective.
Okay, with the difference between predicate
nominatives and predicate adjectives established,
let's look at some sentences that contain
predicate nominatives.
Sentence #1
"I am the head butler."
"Butler" is the predicate nominative here.
It tells us more information about the "I"
in the sentence and it is placed after the
linking verb which is "am".
P.S. "Am" is a common linking verb.
Some of the other common ones are be, is,
are, was, and were.
Take note that there are a lot of linking
verbs, though!
A link containing linking verbs can be found
in the video description below.
Going back, Rule #5 says that the verb agrees
with the subject, not the predicate nominative.
So the verb agrees with "I", not "the head
butler".
Well, both "I" and "butler" are singular nouns,
so you'll get scot-free on this one if you
mistakenly caused your verb to agree with
the word "butler".
The next sentence shows us why we need to
be careful, though!
Sentence #2
His main concern is the connecting flights
that he has to take to reach Tuvalu.
By the way, Tuvalu is the least visited country
in the world.
It's a great place, though!
I happened to watch Yes Theory's video about
it the other day, and oh boy, you guys should watch it!
I linked it in the description box below.
Going back, "flights" is the predicate nominative
in this sentence.
It is placed after the linking verb "is".
Interestingly, "concern" (the subject of the
sentence) and "flights" (the predicate nominative)
differ in number - "concern" is singular while
"flights" is plural.
Because the verb agrees with the subject,
the verb is singular, not plural.
Let's look at one more sentence.
Sentence #3:
Rhea and Gia are friends.
In this example, "friends" is the predicate
nominative.
It "renames" the words "Rhea" and "Gia" and
it is placed after the linking verb "are".
Because Rhea and Gia are two persons that
comprise a compound noun, we need to use a plural verb.
All right, that's that!
Pretty easy, right?
Episode Takeaway Time!
And yes, feel free to check the examples on
the screen for details.
To see if Rule #5 applies, see if the sentence
has a linking verb and if that linking verb
is followed by a noun, pronoun, or a noun
phrase.
Predicative nominatives are nouns, pronouns,
or noun phrases.
Predicate adjectives are adjectives, of course.
And take note that the verb agrees with the subject,
not with the predicate nominative.
Okay, we're done!
But like last time, let's do some quick exercises
to reinforce our learning.
You may pause the video to give yourself more
thinking time.
Answers will be given after 5 seconds.
Best of luck!
Congratulations!
And thank you for finishing Episode 005 of
this series.
So, what do you think?
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More videos to come soon!
Follow us on social media, too!
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Again, this is Sir Dee.
Padayon, English learners!
God bless you!
