Grammar Fundamentals: Concord and Voice

Ever wondered why some sentences just sound wrong? Concord errors happen when your subject and verb don't match up properly - it's one of the most common mistakes students make, but it's easy to fix once you know the pattern.

Subject-verb agreement is straightforward: singular subjects need singular verbs, and plural subjects need plural verbs. For example, "The person is coming" uses singular forms, whilst "The people are coming" uses plural forms. Watch out for tricky phrases like "Groups of people are coming" - even though "people" is closer to the verb, "groups" is actually your subject, so you need the plural verb "are."

English follows a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) structure, which means the person or thing doing the action comes first, then the action, then what receives the action. Active voice uses this natural order: "The train hit a donkey." You can add extra information with subordinate clauses like "which was travelling from Gauteng" without changing the main structure.

Quick Tip: If you're unsure about subject-verb agreement, try removing any phrases between the subject and verb - this makes it easier to spot whether they match!