TOEFL - Subject Verb Agreement, Object of Preposition, Appositives

Bahasa Inggris Bisnis - 1

Subject Verb Agreement

Subject/verb agreement is simple: if the subject of a sentence is singular, then the verb must be singular; if the subject of the sentence is plural, then the verb must be plural. An s on a verb usually indicates that a verb is singular, while an s on a noun usually indicates that the noun is plural. (Do not forget irregular plurals of nouns, such as women, children, and people.)

Example:

1. Joni (is/are) my  best friend.

Answer: Is. Because Joni is singular, so we should use is.

2. Indra (enjoy/enjoys) playing Basket ball every Sunday.

Answer: Enjoys. In the case of pronouns, he, she and it take a singular verb while you, we and they take a plural verb.

3.Indra and Boni (has/have) a special relationship.

Answer: Have. Because Indra and Boni make a plural subject, so we should use the verb have.

4. Fifteen Teachers (works/work) at the new School.

Answer: Work. Because fifteen Teachers are a plural subject, so we choose work as the correct verb form.

5.The Basket ball taem (are/is) ready for their game.

Answer: Are. If it is the former, then the verb should be singular. However if we are considering the team as comprising individual members who are not acting as a single unit, then we use the plural verb.

Object of Preposition

An object of a preposition is a noun or a pronoun that comes after a preposition, such as in, at, of, to, by, behind, on, and so on, to form a prepositional phrase. A preposition is followed by a noun or pronoun that is called an object of the preposition. If a word is an object of a preposition, it is not the subject.

Example:

1. With his friend (he/has) Play Guitar.

Answer: He. Because a subject is needed in this sentence, and friend isn't the subject; friend is the object of the preposition with, and one noun cannot be both a subject and an object at the same time.

2. To Guin (funny/the party) was a big surprise.

Answer: The party. Because Guin is not the subject, Emma is the object of the preposition of the sentence, and the verb is was.

3. Joy walked (upon/across) the road.

Answer: Across. Because the road is the object of the preposition of the sentence.

4. Rani placed her money (in/on) the wallet.

Answer: In. Because The Wallet is the object of the preposition of the sentence.

5. Can you send this letter to (her/she) tomorrow?

Answer: The pronoun her is the object of the preposition to and hence it should be in its objective case.

Appositives

An appositive is a noun that comes before or after another noun and is generally set off from the noun with commas. If a word is an appositive, it is not the subject. The following appositive structures are both possible in English.

Appositives can cause confusion in the structure section of the TOEFL test because an appositive can be mistaken for the subject of a sentence. An appositive is a noun that comes before or after another noun and has the same meaning.

Example:
1. (My friend/right now), Kane, is attending the lecture.

Answer: My friend. Because this sentence still needs a subject. Kane is not the subject of the sentence. Blake is an appositive.

2. (An excellent basketball player/Grace is an excellent basketball player), Grace rarely misses her basketball shots.

Answer: An excellent basketball player. Because an appositive does not need a verb.

3. The National Road, (one/was one) of the first highways in North America, connected the East Coast to the Ohio Valley.

Answer: One. Because a verb cannot be used in an appositive phrase.

4. Where the Appositive from this sentence? Cut Meutia, an Indonesian national hero from Aceh, was born in 1870.

Answer : an Indonesian national hero. The core of this sentence is Cut Meutia is Indonesian hero from aceh is accomplished at spells. A witch at an Indonesia national hero from aceh is an appositive noun phrase that gives us additional information about Cut Meutia.

5. Where the Appositive from this sentence? The Eiffel Tower, Gustave Eiffel’s masterpiece, can be found on the Champs de Mars.

Answer: Gustave Eiffel’s masterpiece. This is a sentence about where the Eiffel Tower can be found. The appositive phrase Gustave Eiffel’s masterpiece tells us a bit more about the sentence’s subject noun, Eiffel Tower.

Reference :

1. Hacker, D. (2006). The Bedford handbook. Boston, MA: Bedford/ St. Martins.
2. Phillips, Deborah. (2001). Longman Complete Course for the TOEFL Test. White Plains, NY: Longman.
3. Rogers, Bruce. (2004). Peterson's TOEFL Success. Lawrenceville, NJ: Thomson/Peterson's.