5. CONCORD

Concord simply means agreement. By agreement, we mean the rules governing the make-up of a sentence construction in terms of verbs, nouns, pronouns and other part of speech. When the grammatical ordering of items is not followed correctly, the resultant expression would be a blunder.

               ANALYSIS OF THE TYPES OR RULES OF CONCORD

Most common mistake that mar students efforts in writing effectively are mistakes in agreement caused by inconsistency in the use of:

i.               Number as it involves:

i.               Subject and verb of a sentence

ii.              Pronoun and its antecedent (the Noun and Pronoun replacement)

    ii.         Person in terms of:

i.               Pronoun and its antecedent.

ii.              Shift from one person to another.

   Iii       Gender in terms of pronoun and its antecedent.

   Iv       Tense as it  involves shifts from one tense to the other

   V        Voice as it applies to shifts from active to passive voice.

 

The above problem areas have resulted in three Rules or Laws of Agreement:

a.     Subject/verb Agreement

b.     Pronoun/Antecedent Agreement

c.     Shifts in construction (sudden change from one number, person, tense, voice to another)

 

a.     SUBJECT/VERB AGREEMENT

The first rule of agreement states that a verb must agree in number with its subject. This means that a singular subject must be followed by a singular verb, while a plural subject is followed by a plural verb.

1.     S1 V1 (where S1 = Singular Subject and V1 = Singular Verb)

Example of sentences: i.  Eze goes to school.

                                  ii. Measles has been eradicated.

 

2.     S2 V2 (where S2 =Plural Subject and V2 = Plural Verb)

Examples of sentences:  i. Some people are stupid.

                                     ii. Youths are aggressive.

                                iii. The families were at the party.

3.     S1 and S1, V2 (where S1 and S1 = Compound Singular Subject and V2 = Plural)

Examples: i.  The boy and the girl are in love.       

                                ii. Pleasure and work do not mix.

4.    S2 and S2, V2 (where S2 and S2 = Compound Plural Subject and V2 = Plural Verb)

Examples: i. Boys and girls are needed here.

iii.           Some fathers and some mothers are strict.