Subject and Verb Agreement

Rule (ketentuan) yang paling penting dalam bahasa Inggris adalah bahwa antara subject dengan verb harus in agreement. Artinya, jika subject-nya singular maka verb-nya juga harus singular. Sebaliknya, jika subject-nya plural maka verb-nya juga harus plural.

1. Singular subject – singular verb

Yang dimaksud dengan singular subject adalah subject pronoun he, she, dan it, atau nouns yang dapat digantikan dengan he, she atau it; Sedangkan yang dimaksud dengan singular verbs adalah verb1+es/s, is/was, serta verb phrase seperti: is/was + verb-ing/verb3, has +verb3, has been verb-ing dan has been verb3.

Pola-pola singular subject-singular verb disajikan pada tabel berikut:

	Singular subject	Singular verb	Tenses
1	He/She/it	verb1 + es/s	simple present
2	He/She/it	is + verb-ing	present continuous
3	He/She/it	was + verb-ing	past continuous
4	He/She/it	has + verb3	present perfect
5	He/She/it	has + been + verb-ing	present perfect continuous
6	He/She/it	is going to + verb1	simple future
7	He/She/It	is going to + be verb-ing	future continuous
8	He/She/it	was going to + verb1	past future
9	He/She/It	was going to + be verb-ing	past future continuous

Jika kalimatnya tidak menggunakan verb, kita gunakan to be :

	Singular subject	Singular verb	Tenses
10	He/She/it	is	simple present
11	He/She/it	is + being	present continuous
12	He/She/it	was	simple past
13	He/She/it	was + being	past continuous
14	He/She/It	has been	present perfect
10	He/She/it	has + been + being	present perfect continuous
16	He/She/it	is going to + be	simple future
17	He/She/it	is going to + be being	future continuous
18	He/She/it	was going to + be	past future
19	He/She/it	was going to + be being	past future continuous

2. Plural subject – plural verb

Yang dimaksud dengan plural subject adalah subject pronouns seperti I, we, you, they, dan semua plural nouns. Sedangkan yang dimaksud dengan plural verbs adalah verbs dan verb phrase selain singular verbs di atas.

Pola-pola plural subject-plural verb disajikan pada tabel berikut:

	Plural subject	Plural verb	Tense
1	I/we/you/they	verb1	simple present
2	I/we/you/they	am/are + verb-ing	present continuous
3	I/we/you/they	was/were + verb-ing	past continuous
4	I/we/you/they	have+ verb3	present perfect
5	I/we/you/they	have + been + verb-ing	present perfect continuous
6	I/we/you/they	am/are going to + verb1	simple future
7	I/we/you/they	am/are going to + be verb-ing	future continuous
8	I/we/you/they	was/were going to + verb1	past future
9	I/we/you/they	was/were going to + be verb-ing	past future continuous

Jika kalimatnya tidak menggunakan verb (kalimat nominal), maka digunakan to be :

	Plural subject	Plural verb	Tense
10	I/we/you/they	am/are	simple present
11	I/we/you/they	am/are + being	present continuous
12	I/we/you/they	was/were	simple past
13	I/we/you/they	was/were + being	past continuous
14	I/we/you/they	have been	present perfect
10	I/we/you/they	have + been + being	present perfect continuous
16	I/we/you/they	am/are going to + be	simple future
17	I/we/you/they	am/are going to + be being	future continuous
18	I/we/you/they	was/were going to + be	past future
19	I/we/you/they	was/were going to + be being	past future continuous

Contoh:

	Singular subject-singular verb	Plural subject-plural verb
1	She dances	They dance
2	She is dancing	They are dancing
3	She was dancing	They were dancing
4	She has danced	They have danced
5	She has been dancing	They have been dancing
6	She is going to dance	They are going to dance
7	She is going to be dancing	They are going to be dancing
8	She was going to dance	They were going to dance
9	She was going to be dancing	They were going to be dancing
10	She is nice to me.	They are nice to me.
11	She is being nice to me.	They are being nice to me.
12	She was nice to me.	They were nice to me.
13	She was being nice to me.	They were being nice to me.
14	She has been nice to me.	They have been nice to me.
10	She has been being nice to me.	They have been being nice to me.
16	She is going to be nice to me.	They are going to be nice to me.
17	She is going to be being nice to me.	They are going to be being nice to me.
18	She was going to be nice to me.	They were going to be nice to me.
19	She was going to be being nice to me.	They were going to be being nice to me.

Bagaimana subject-verb agreement pada tensis lain yang tidak disebutkan di atas?

Bentuk verb atau verb phrase pada tensis-tensis yang tidak disebutkan di atas baik ketika subject-nya singular maupun plural adalah sama.

Contoh:

1. The elevator worked very well yesterday. (Lift itu berfungsi dengan baik kemarin)
2. The elevators worked very well yesterday. (Lift-lift itu berfungsi dengan baik kemarin).

1. Andi had gone before Ani arrived. (Andi telah pergi sebelum Ani tiba).
2. Andi and Amir had gone before Ani arrived. (Andi dan Amir telah pergi sebelum Ani tiba).

1. My mother will go to Bali tomorrow. (Ibuku akan pergi ke Bali besok).
2. My mother and my father will go to Bali tomorrow. (Ibuku dan ayahku akan pergi ke Bali besok).

1. Jenny would have passed the test if she had studied well. (Jenny telah lulus ujian jika dia telah belajar dengan baik).
2. Jenny and Julie would have passed the test if they had studied well. (Jenny dan Julie telah lulus ujian jika mereka telah belajar dengan baik).

Pada contoh-contoh di atas, kita lihat bahwa subject-nya langsung diikuti oleh verb. Selanjutnya, mari kita bahas subject-verb agreement ketika subject dipisahkan oleh prepositional phrase atau oleh ungkapan-ungkapan (expression). [1]

1. Definition of Subject

The concept of subject is sometimes mixed with that of actor or agent and other times with that of carrier of attributes. When this happens, it is defined as the argument that generally refers to the origin of the action or the undergoer of the state shown by the predicate. This definition takes the representation of the sentence into account, but it is problematic for several reasons. While interpreting the subject as the actor or agent of the action, two rather different concepts are overlayed. For instance, in the passive voice the subject is the goal, middle or patient/target of the action; for example:

Anggia was arrested by the police.

The police arrested Anggia.

In the first sentence (which is in the passive voice), the subject is Anggia, while in the second sentence (active voice) it is the police. But when it comes to the representation of the action, the actor in both sentences is the police and the goal of the action is Anggia. [2]

2. Function of Subject

In a sentence, every verb must have a subject. If the verb expresses action—like sneeze, jump, bark, or study—the subject is who or what does the verb. Take a look at this example:

During his biology lab, Tommy danced on the table.

Danced is an action verb. Tommy is who did the dancing. Look at the next example:

The speeding hotrod crashed into a telephone pole.

Crashed is the action verb. The hotrod is what did the crashing. [3]

3. Form of Subject

The subject is a noun phrase in the sentence and can be realised by the following forms

• A determinerless noun phrase, also called a bare noun phrase. In English, this is mostly limited to plural noun phrases and noun phrases headed by a mass noun.

  Builders are at work.

• A noun phrase introduced by a determiner. This complex (determiner + noun phrase) is usually called a determiner phrase:

  The large car stopped outside our house.

• A gerund. These can be shown to behave as noun phrases in many respects, for example, in being able to form determinerless phrases

  Eating is a pleasure.

  His constant hammering was very annoying.

• An infinitive. These can be shown to behave in many respects as embedded clauses, for example in allowing question words like "who."

  To read is easier than to write.

  Whom to hire is a difficult question.

• A full clause, introduced by the complementizer that, itself containing a subject and a predicate.

  That he had travelled the world was known by everyone.

• A direct quotation:

  I love you is often heard these days.

• The subject can also be implied. In the following command, the subject is the implied "you" that is the recipient of the imperative mood.

  Take out the trash!

• An expletive. These are words like it or there when they don't refer to any thing or place. For example in the following sentence "it" doesn't refer to anything.

  It rains.

• A cataphoric it. This is the use of it when it is co-referent with a subordinate clause that comes after it.

  It was known by everyone (that) he had travelled the world. [2]

[1] http://swarabhaskara.com/parts-of-speech/subject-verb-agreement-part-1/
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subject_%28grammar%29
[3] http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/subject.htm