As a native Cantonese speaker, I used to find subject-verb agreement confusing. There isn\u2019t anything similar in Chinese, so I had to work hard to learn how to use this grammatical feature. It\u2019s very important in English and has a few strange rules, but it\u2019s actually much simpler than it used to be. In the past, there were more verb endings than we have now. In Latin, one of the root languages of English, a different verb ending was used for every pronoun. Nowadays, we just have a few rules to learn to make our meaning clear.<\/p>\n
First and foremost, you need to know what subjects and verbs are. A verb is a word that shows the action in a sentence. The subject is the noun that does the verb. For instance, in the sentence \u2018Tom eats breakfast\u2019, \u2018Tom\u2019 is the subject, and \u2018eats\u2019 is the verb.<\/p>\n
In English, when the subject changes, the verb has to change to match it. In the present tense, if we see \u2018I\u2019, \u2018You\u2019, \u2018We\u2019, or \u2018They\u2019 as the subject, we will use the basic form of the verb. For example, \u2018I\/You\/We\/They watch<\/b> a movie.\u2019 However, when we see \u2018He\u2019, \u2018She\u2019, or \u2018It\u2019 as the subject, we add \u2018s\u2019, \u2018es\u2019 or \u2018ies\u2019 (depending on the word) to the verb, for instance, \u2018He\/She\/It watches<\/b> a movie.\u2019 In Chinese, on the contrary, verbs do not change to match the subject. We use the same verb in Chinese no matter what the subject is. For example, we use the same verb when expressing \u2018I watch a movie.\u2019 and \u2018She watches a movie.\u2019 in Chinese.<\/p>\n
This is easy to remember for many people, but there\u2019s another way to think about it that can help some learners. For all singula<\/b>r <\/b>subjects (nouns that refer to one person), we must add \u2018s\u2019, \u2018es\u2019 or \u2018ies\u2019 after the verb, whereas for plural <\/b>subjects (nouns that refer to more than one person), we should use the basic form of the verb. BUT, and it is a big BUT, there are two special cases, which are \u2018You\u2019 and \u2018I\u2019 (You and I are special, aren\u2019t we?). When \u2018You\u2019 and \u2018I\u2019 are the subjects, even though they refer to one person, we will use the basic form of the verb.<\/p>\n
So when forming a simple sentence, always remember, if the subject is singular, add \u2018s\u2019, \u2018es\u2019 or \u2018ies\u2019 to the verb; if the subject is plural, do not add anything. BUT, you and I are always special.<\/p>\n
There are a few exceptions to these rules that you can learn with practice. Here are 3 common examples:<\/p>\n
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