THE FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC ILARO

Department - Computer Science

Course - Use of English

Course Code: - GNS 101

Project Topic - Discuss the notion of Concord

Level - National Diploma (ND 1)

Group Assignment - Group 8

Lecturer in Charge:

MR. ADESANMI
 DISCUSS THE NOTION OF CONCORD

WHAT IS CONCORD

Concord is define as the agreement between all the parts of a clause or sentence,
particularly between the subject and verb.

In other way the notion of concord is the agreement between words in gender, number, case,
person or any other grammatical category which affects the forms of the words

The Rules of Concord

Concord is all about obeying the rules that govern the subject (s) and the verb (s) in a
sentence. Unarguably, if these rules are totally adhered to while writing your easy , your easy will
not only be good but also be the best.

RULES OF CONCORD

1. Singular nous should take singular verbs

Example:

• Emeka needs helps

• Emeka and Kalu needs help

2. All personal pronouns at the subject position except other third person singular pronouns
(he/she/it) should take plural verbs.

• I love delicious meals

• We love delicious meals

• They love delicious meals

• You love delicious

The ward underlined above are the personal pronouns that must take plural verbs in
sentence, on the other hand, the third person singular pronouns (he/she/it), which occupy the
position in a sentence, must take singular verbs.

Examples:

He loves delicious meals

She loves delicious meals

It loves delicious meals

'Loves' is the singular form of 'Love' and goes with a singular noun or pronouns as shown in a the
sentences above

Note: in English Language , most nouns form their plural by the addition of 's' 'es', 'ves'
where as verbs form their singular form by the addition of 's'.

3. The base form of any lexical verb coming after the primary auxiliary verbs (has, have, be,
is, was, had, were e.t.c) should be in its past participle form.

Examples

• I have rung that bell

• He has rung the bell

• The bell was rung by him

• The battle has just begun

• Let the song be sung

4. If singular subjects are joined by either of the correlative conjunctions (either or and neither
or), the subject is considered singular, and as such, the verb will also be singular.

Examples:

• Either Emeka or Emma is coming.

• Neither the teacher nor the principal has a pen.

5. Nouns that traditionally end in 's' should take a singular verb

Examples:

• Measles is deadly disease

• Mathematics is simple but difficult to many

6. There are some cases where nouns which do not end in 's' are considered as plural nouns. In
this cases, such nouns should take plural verbs in sentences.

Examples:

• The rich also Cry

• The Police are investigating the case

• Nigeria Clergy are very honest

7. If the two nouns items joined are closely related and always used together, the subject is
considered singular, and the verb also becomes singular.
Examples:

• Eba and Egusi Soup is very delicious

• Bread and Better is my favourite lunch.

8. In a case where one of the two items joined is singular while the other one is plural, the verb
will maintain agreement with the items closer to it,.

Examples:

• Either Emeka or his Teachers are angry.

• Neither the Teachers nor Emeka is angry

• In example one above, the plural verb, 'are' is used because the nouns closer to it is a
plural noun.

9. When making use of semi conjunctions, the verb maintains agreement with the first items
mentioned. if the first items is a singular nouns, then the verb automatically becomes singular
irrespective of the form of the second item and vice versa. semi conjunction are words that are
used are conjunctions but are not actually conjunctions semi conjunctions include: Followed
by, as well as, as much as, along with together with no less than including e.t.c

Examples:

 Emeka as well as his friend is intelligent

 The man's sons together with the man are notorious
 The rich including the manager were there before I left.

TYPE OF CONCORD

 Grammatical Concord: Grammatical concord is the easiest type of Subject- Verb

agreement to grasp, and its always the one we learn first. put simply , it means that if the
sentence has a singular subject, it must also has a singular verb. if the subject of the sentence is
plural, the verb must be plural too.

The subject of the sentence is the person, animal, or thing doing the action. the subject
might be singular or plural.

Let look at two sample sentences:

• The teacher speaks to the class.

• The teachers speak to the class.

In the sentence, the subject (the teacher) is singular, so the sentence uses the singular verb
'speaks'. In the second sentence, there’s more than one teacher, so the plural verb 'speak' is used.
Things get a little more complicated when we add an object to the sentence, before the verb, as
this can sometimes be mistaken for the subject. we have to be careful when we’re looking at this
kinds of sentence is singular (the dog). So in this case we use the singular verb 'is'.

• Grammatical Concord with more than one subject:

What happens if there are multiple subjects in a sentence?.

If there's more than one subject, these work together as plural subject, so the verb is plural like
this:

• Jack and Ali were caught in the rain.

• Because there are two subjects (Jack and Ali) we use the plural verb 'were' instead of
singular 'was'

• However, there are a couple of exceptions to this rule.

The first exception is when both subjects are the same person of thing, for Example:

• The largest animal and loudest sea creature is the blue while.

• The singular and song writer is harry styles

In both of this cases, the subjects are the same person, or animal, so we use the singular
verb'is' in the sentences.

The other exception is when two things are always linked together in peoples ,minds to the
point where, when spoken about together, we think of them as one things, there’s an Example:

Fish and Chips is my favourite dinner

We always think of fish and chips as one dish even though they are different things and
can be eaten separately .when we refer to them together, we use the singular verb is.

 Proximity Concord:

Proximity refers to the closeness of two things, in the case sentence, we often show proximity
between two subjects by using the correlative Conjunctions either/ or neither nor if both subjects
are singular, the verb takes the singular form, as in these examples:

• Either the prime minister or chancellor is attending the meeting

• Either Mary nor her mother eats meat but what happens when one subject is singular and
the other is plural? in these cases, the verb takes the form of the subject nearest to it in
sentence like this:

• Either the prime minister or other Government ministers are attending the meeting.

• Neither Mary nor her parents eat meat.

 Both of these sentences put the plural subject closet to the verb, so the takes its plural
form in the cases.

If we reversed this sentence, so the singular subject was second, the verb would take its
singular form (Neither Mary's Parents nor Mary eats meat).

 Notional Concord:
The idea of national concord relate to collective noun. We use these to refer to a group of
people, animals or things.
Some examples include:
 Class
 Audience
 Congregation
 Theme etc.

When were using collective nouns, the verb takes it’s singular form if there is no action
being taken in the sentence. If there is action happening, the verb should be plural, as the people
or animals in the collective are all taken action as individuals even if it’s the same action as each
other. Let’s take a look at two examples:

 The class has the best exam result in the school.

 The class are sitting at their desk.

In the first example, there is no action being taken the sentence is simple starting a fact, so
the verb here is singular. In the second example, the children in the class are individually taken
the action of sitting at their desk, so we use the plural form of the verb.

 Indefinite Pronoun Concord:

These are pronouns that refers to things vaguely rather than specifically. They give us
ways to take about people, things and qualities in abstract terms. Some examples of indefinite
pronouns are:

 Anything/anyone/anybody
 Something/someone/somebody
 Everything/everyone/everybody
 Nothing/no-one/nobody

When the subject of a sentence is an indefinite pronoun, we always use a singular verb for
example:

 Everyone is coming to the party.

 Something has to be done about this.
 Is anybody there?
  Measurement Concord:

We use all kinds of measurements in as speech and writing, so it’s important to know how
to make the verb agree with the measurement were describing. If were taken about
measurements of term, money, amount or distance, we always tend to use a singular verb,
even if the measurement is plural here are some examples:

 Two weeks is not long enough for our Christmas holiday.

 Three hundred dollars is too much to spend on a concert ticket.

So, whether were taken about hours, kilometers or teaspoons, we always use the singular
form of the verb

However, thing change when were taken about percentage or fraction. In this case, the
verb takes the same for as the subject like this:

 50% of the building is occupied.

 Half of the students are boys

In the first sentence, the subject (the building) is singular, so the verb is singular too. In the
second case, the subject (the students) is plural, so the verb takes the plural form.

Let us also measure comparative measurement here, such as ‘more than’, and ‘fewer than’.
If we’re using these expressions to talk about amounts of something, the verb needs to correlate
with the subject, whether it’s singular or plural. For examples.

 More than one child’s is singing a solo in the concert

 Fewer than ten days have been dry this month

As we can see here that the first example has a singular subject, so the verb is also singular. In the
second sentence, which has a plural subject, we use a plural verb.