Page 153 - DENG102_COMMUNICATION_SKILLS_II

Communication Skills-II

notes 6. Needless Separation of Related Sentence Elements:
(a) WRONG: I, hoping very much to find Mrs. Singh at home and to sell her one of
our new products, knocked at the door. (needless separation of subject “I” and verb
“knocked”)
RIGHT: Hoping very much to find Mrs. Singh at home and to sell her one of our new
products, I knocked at the door.
(b) WRONG: I only telephoned those men. (needless separation, of adverb “only” and
“those men” which “only” modifies)
RIGHT: I telephoned only those men.

7. Lack of Subject-Verb Agreement:
(a) WRONG: The price of the new products were reasonable.
RIGHT: The price of the new products was reasonable. (singular verb to agree with
singular subject, even though a plural word intervenes.)
(b) WRONG: The advantage of Product A and Product B are the profits.

RIGHT: The advantage of Product A and Product B is the profits. (Singular verb to
agree with singular subject, even though a plural word follows the verb.
(c) WRONG: There is a man and a woman waiting to see me.
RIGHT: There are a man and woman waiting to see me. (plural verb to agree with
double subject, especially when “there” begins sentence and subject follows verb).
(d) WRONG: Everyone on the top three floors work for one company.
RIGHT: Everyone on the top three floors works for one company (singular verb to
agree with singular subject, especially when subject is “everyone” or “each”.)
(e) WRONG: There is only one of the girls who play the sitar.
RIGHT: There is only one of the girls who plays the sitar. (Singular verb to agree with
“one”, the singular word to which subject “who” refers. Important when subject of
verb is “who”, “which”, or “that”.)

(f) WRONG: Neither the report nor its appendix were published.
RIGHT: Neither the report nor its appendix was published. (Singular verb to agree
with singular subjects joined by “or” or “nor”.)
!

Caution If one subject is singular and one plural, the verb agrees with the nearest subject.

Example: Neither the report nor the books were published.
8. Lack of Pronoun Agreement:
(a) WRONG: Everyone brought their lunch to work.
RIGHT: Everyone brought his lunch to work. (Singular pronoun to agree with
“everyone”, the singular word to which pronoun refers. Important when pronoun
refers to “everyone” or “anyone”.)
(b) WRONG: He does not usually make those kind of errors.
RIGHT: He does not usually make that kind of error. (singular pronoun to agree with
“kind”, the singular noun which pronoun modifies. Important when “this”, “that”,
“these”, or “those” modifies “kind” or “sort”.)

148 lovely Professional university