0

Which affirmation is correct?

  1. A finite verb usually agrees with its subject.
  2. A finite verb always agrees with its subject.

Can we talk of a verb disagreement in English?

Lucian Sava
  • 11,458
  • 15
  • 46
  • 98
  • This question confuses me. My definition of "agree" makes the answer, tautologically, yes (because I would say a verb "disagrees with its subject" precisely when someone has mistakenly used the wrong form). Maybe you could explain in more detail what you mean. – hunter Jan 31 '14 at 15:03

2 Answers2

3

Semantically, I think the 2nd statement is true. A definition could be: "A finite verb is a form of a verb that has a subject." So, by that logic, yes, it always agrees with its subject.

Joe laughs.

He is happy.

Joe expected to be given points.

However, in practice, we can see a few situations where this is not strictly true. One example is the imperative form:

Come here.

The subject is implied, but there is no possible differentiation (grammatically) between singular and plural forms.

We also modify finite verbs to create our own agreements (rather than grammatical ones) according to common usage. Consider:

Egg and chips is my favourite dinner.

Where we refer to "egg and chips" as "dinner", hence, singular.

Collective nouns can also fall under this "bending" of the rules. See this question for an example.

Whether you say this contravenes the rules of finite verbs agreeing with their subjects, or simply that those rules are flexible in certain situations is your choice. Even in complex grammatical structures such as inverting clauses, we have to maintain basic agreement between verb and subject.

Over the hill came the monster.

Onwards and upwards ride the gallant soldiers.

To answer your final question, I think we can talk about "verb disagreement", as this Google search helps show. However, I would refer to "lack of verb agreement" or similar.

Community
  • 1
JMB
  • 7,756
  • 25
  • 36
-1

Agreement or concord in grammar is a singular subject has a verb in singular, a plural subject has a verb in plural. But this is no general rule. A frequent exception are nouns for person groups: a)The police are coming. Possible also: b) The police is coming. Nouns for person groups are mostly constructed with the plural verb. The grammar chapter subject-verb agreement has several points where the general rule is not observed and I think one should study it.

rogermue
  • 8,538
  • 2
  • 23
  • 24