Inlinguistics,agreement orconcord (abbreviatedagr) occurs when aword changes form depending on the other words to which it relates.[1] It is an instance ofinflection, and usually involves making the value of somegrammatical category (such asgender orperson) "agree" between varied words or parts of thesentence.
For example, inStandard English, one may sayI am orhe is, but not "I is" or "he am". This is becauseEnglish grammar requires that the verb and itssubject agree inperson. ThepronounsI andhe are first and third person respectively, as are theverb formsam andis. The verb form must be selected so that it has the same person as the subject in contrast tonotional agreement, which is based on meaning.[2][3]
Agreement generally involves matching the value of somegrammatical category between differentconstituents of a sentence (or sometimes between sentences, as in some cases where apronoun is required to agree with itsantecedent orreferent). Some categories that commonly trigger grammatical agreement are noted below.
Agreement based ongrammatical person is found mostly betweenverb andsubject. An example from English (I am vs.he is) has been given in the introduction to this article.
Agreement between pronoun (or correspondingpossessive adjective) and antecedent also requires the selection of the correct person. For example, if the antecedent is the first person noun phraseMary and I, then a first person pronoun (we/us/our) is required; however, most noun phrases (the dog,my cats,Jack and Jill, etc.) are third person, and are replaced by a third person pronoun (he/she/it/they etc.).
Agreement based ongrammatical number can occur between verb and subject, as in the case of grammatical person discussed above. In fact the two categories are often conflated withinverb conjugation patterns: there are specific verb forms for first person singular, second person plural and so on. Some examples:
Again as with person, there is agreement in number between pronouns (or their corresponding possessives) and antecedents:
Agreement also occurs between nouns and theirspecifier andmodifiers, in some situations. This is common in languages such as French and Spanish, wherearticles,determiners andadjectives (both attributive and predicative) agree in number with the nouns they qualify:
In English this is not such a common feature, although there are certain determiners that occur specifically with singular or plural nouns only:
In languages in whichgrammatical gender plays a significant role, there is often agreement in gender between a noun and its modifiers. For example, inFrench:
Such agreement is also found withpredicate adjectives:l'homme est grand ("the man is big") vs.la chaise est grande ("the chair is big"). However, in some languages, such asGerman, this is not the case; only attributive modifiers show agreement:
In the case of verbs, gender agreement is less common, although it may still occur, for example inArabic verbs where the second and third persons take different inflections for masculine and feminine subjects. In theFrench compound past tense, the past participle – formally an adjective – agrees in certain circumstances with the subject or with an object (seepassé composé for details). InRussian and most otherSlavic languages, the form of the past tense agrees in gender with the subject, again due to derivation from an earlier adjectival construction.
There is also agreement in gender between pronouns and their antecedents. Examples of this can be found in English (although English pronouns principally follow natural gender rather than grammatical gender):
For more detail seeGender in English.
In languages that have a system ofcases, there is often agreement by case between a noun and its modifiers. For example, inGerman:
In fact, the modifiers of nouns in languages such as German andLatin agree with their nouns in number, gender and case; all three categories are conflated together in paradigms ofdeclension.
Case agreement is not a significant feature of English (onlypersonal pronouns and the pronounwho have any case marking). Agreement between such pronouns can sometimes be observed:
A rare type of agreement that phonologically copies parts of the head rather than agreeing with agrammatical category.[4] For example, inBainouk:
katama-ŋɔ
river-prox.
in-ka
this
/
/
katama-ā-ŋɔ
river-pl-prox.
in-ka-ā
these
katama-ŋɔ in-ka /katama-ā-ŋɔ in-ka-ā
river-prox. this / river-pl-prox. these
In this example, what is copied is not a prefix, but rather the initial syllable of the head "river".
Languages can have no conventional agreement whatsoever, as inJapanese orMalay; barely any, as inEnglish; a small amount, as in spokenFrench; a moderate amount, as inGreek orLatin; or a large amount, as inSwahili.
Modern English does not have a particularly large amount of agreement, although it is present.
Apart from verbs, the main examples are the determiners “this” and “that”, which become “these” and “those” respectively when the following noun is plural:
Allregular verbs (and nearly allirregular ones) in English agree in the third-person singular of the presentindicative by adding asuffix of either-s or-es. The latter is generally used after stems ending in thesibilantssh,ch,ss, orzz (e.g.he rushes,it lurches,she amasses,it buzzes.)
Present tense ofto love:
| Person | Number | |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |
| First | I love | we love |
| Second | you love | you love |
| Third | he/she/it loves | they love |
In the present tense (indicative mood), the following verbs have irregular conjugations for the third-person singular:
Note that there is a distinction between irregular verb conjugations in the spoken language and irregular spellings of words in the written language. Linguistics generally concerns itself with the natural, spoken language, and not with spelling conventions in the written language. The verbto go is often given as an example of a verb with an irregular present tense conjugation, on account of adding "-es" instead of just "-s" for the third person singular conjugation. However, this is merely an arbitrary spelling convention. In the spoken language, the present tense conjugation ofto go is entirely regular. If we were to classifyto go as irregular based on the spelling ofgoes, then by the same reasoning, we would have to include other regular verbs with irregular spelling conventions such asto veto/vetoes,to echo/echoes,to carry/carries,to hurry/hurries, etc. In contrast, the verbto do is actually irregular in its spoken third-person singular conjugation, in addition to having a somewhat irregular spelling. While the verbdo rhymes withshoe, its conjugationdoes does not rhyme withshoes; the verbdoes rhymes withfuzz.
Conversely, the verbto say, while it may appear to be regular based on its spelling, is in fact irregular in its third person singular present tense conjugation:Say is pronounced /seɪ/, butsays is pronounced /sɛz/.Say rhymes withpay, butsays does not rhyme withpays.
The highly irregular verbto be is the only verb with more agreement than this in the present tense.
Present tense ofto be:
| Person | Number | |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |
| First | I am | we are |
| Second | you are | you are |
| Third | he/she/it is | they are |
In English,defective verbs generally show no agreement for person or number, they include themodal verbs:can,may,shall,will,must,should,ought.
InEarly Modern English agreement existed for the second person singular of all verbs in the present tense, as well as in the past tense of some common verbs. This was usually in the form-est, but-st and-t also occurred. Note that this does not affect the endings for other persons and numbers.
Example present tense forms:thou wilt,thou shalt,thou art,thou hast,thou canst.Example past tense forms:thou wouldst,thou shouldst,thou wast,thou hadst,thou couldst
Note also the agreement shown byto be even in thesubjunctive mood.
| Person | Number | |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |
| First | (if) I were | (if) we were |
| Second | (if)thou wert | (if) you were |
| Third | (if) he/she/it were | (if) they were |
However, for nearly all regular verbs, a separatethou form was no longer commonly used in the past tense. Thus theauxiliary verbto do is used, e.g. thou didst help, not*thou helpedst.
Here are some special cases for subject–verb agreement in English:
Always Singular
-All's well that ends well.
-One sows, another reaps.
-Together Everyone Achieves More–that's why we're a TEAM.
- If wealth is lost, nothing is lost. If health is lost, something is lost. If the character is lost, everything is lost.
- Nothing succeeds like success.
Exceptions:None is construed in the singular or plural as the sense may require, though the plural is commonly used.[5] Whennone is clearly intended to meannot one, it should be followed by a singular verb. The SAT testing service, however, considersnone to be strictly singular.[6]
- None so deaf as those who don't hear.
-None prosper by begging.
-Every dog is a lion at home.
- Many a penny makes a pound.
-Each man and each woman has a vote.
Exceptions: When the subject is followed byeach, the verb agrees to the original subject.
- Double coincidence of wants occurs when two parties each desire to sell what the other exactly wants to buy.
-Thousand dollars is a high price to pay.
Exceptions:Ten dollars were scattered on the floor. (= Ten dollar bills)
Exceptions: Fraction or percentage can be singular or plural based on the noun that follows it.
- Half a loaf is better than no bread.
- One in three people globally do not have access to safe drinking water.
- Who is to bell the cat?
- A food web is a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecosystem.
-Two and two is four.
Always Plural
-The MD and the CEO of the company have arrived.
-Time and tide wait for none.
-Weal and woe come by turns.
-Day and night are alike to a blind man.
Exceptions: If the nouns, however, suggest one idea or refer to the same thing or person, the verb is singular.[5]
-The good and generous thinks the whole world is friendly.
-The new bed and breakfast opens this week.
-The MD and CEO has arrived.
Exceptions: Words joined to a subject bywith,in addition to,along with,as well (as), together with, besides, not, etc. are parenthetical and the verb agrees with the original subject.[5]
-One cow breaks the fence, and a dozen leap it.
-A dozen of eggs cost around $1.5.
-1 mole of oxygen react with 2 moles of hydrogen gas to form water.
-The rich plan for tomorrow, the poor for today.
-Where the cattle stand together, the lion lies down hungry.
Singular or Plural
-Success or failure depends on individuals.
-Neither I nor you are to blame.
-Either you or he has to go.
(But at times, it is considered better to reword such grammatically correct but awkward sentences.)
- The jury has arrived at a unanimous decision.
- The committee are divided in their opinion.
- His family is quite large.
- His family have given him full support in his times of grief.
-There's a huge audience in the gallery today.
-The audience are requested to take their seats.
Exceptions: British English, however, tends to treat team and company names as plural.
-India beat Sri Lanka by six wickets in a pulsating final to deliver World Cup glory to their cricket-mad population for the first time since 1983. (BBC)[7]
-India wins cricket World Cup for 1st time in 28 years. (Washington Post)[8]
- There's more than one way to skin a cat.
Compared with English, Latin is an example of a highlyinflected language. The consequences for agreement are thus:
Verbs must agree in person and number, and sometimes in gender, with their subjects. Articles and adjectives must agree in case, number and gender with the nouns they modify.
Sample Latin verb: the present indicative active ofportare (portar), to carry:
In Latin, a pronoun such as "ego" and "tu" is only inserted for contrast and selection. Proper nouns and common nouns functioning as subject are nonetheless frequent. For this reason, Latin is described as anull-subject language.
 | This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(August 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Spoken French always distinguishes the second person plural, and the first person plural in formal speech, from each other and from the rest of the present tense in all verbs in the first conjugation (infinitives in -er) other thanaller. The first person plural form and pronoun (nous) are now usually replaced by the pronounon (literally: "one") and a third person singular verb form in Modern French. Thus,nous travaillons (formal) becomeson travaille. In most verbs from the other conjugations, each person in the plural can be distinguished among themselves and from the singular forms, again, when using the traditional first person plural. The other endings that appear in written French (i.e.: all singular endings, and also the third person plural of verbs other than those with infinitives in -er) are often pronounced the same, except inliaison contexts. Irregular verbs such asêtre,faire,aller, andavoir possess more distinctly pronounced agreement forms than regular verbs.
An example of this is the verbtravailler, which goes as follows (the single words in italic type are pronounced /tʁa.vaj/):
On the other hand, a verb likepartir has (the single words in italic type are pronounced /paʁ/):
The final S or T is silent, and the other three forms sound different from one another and from the singular forms.
Adjectives agree in gender and number with the nouns that they modify in French. As with verbs, the agreements are sometimes only shown in spelling since forms that are written with different agreement suffixes are sometimes pronounced the same (e.g.joli,jolie); although in many cases the final consonant is pronounced in feminine forms, but silent in masculine forms (e.g.petit vs.petite). Most plural forms end in-s, but this consonant is only pronounced in liaison contexts, and it is determinants that help understand if the singular or plural is meant. Theparticiples of verbs agree in gender and number with the subject or object in some instances.
Articles, possessives and other determinants also decline for number and (only in the singular) for gender, with plural determinants being the same for both genders. This normally produces three forms: one for masculine singular nouns, one for feminine singular nouns, and another for plural nouns of either gender:
Notice that some of the above also change (in the singular) if the following word begins with a vowel:le andla becomel′,du andde la becomede l′,ma becomesmon (as if the noun were masculine) andce becomescet.
InHungarian, verbs havepolypersonal agreement, which means they agree with more than one of the verb'sarguments: not only its subject but also its (accusative) object. Difference is made between the case when there is a definite object and the case when the object is indefinite or there is no object at all. (The adverbs do not affect the form of the verb.) Examples:Szeretek (I love somebody or something unspecified),szeretem (I love him, her, it, or them, specifically),szeretlek (I love you);szeret (he loves me, us, you, someone, or something unspecified),szereti (he loves her, him, it, or them specifically). Of course, nouns or pronouns may specify the exact object. In short, there is agreement between a verb and the person and number of its subject and the specificity of its object (which often refers to the person more or less exactly).
Thepredicate agrees in number with the subject and if it iscopulative (i.e., it consists of a noun/adjective and a linking verb), both parts agree in number with the subject. For example:A könyvek érdekesek voltak "The books were interesting" ("a": the, "könyv": book, "érdekes": interesting, "voltak": were): the plural is marked on the subject as well as both the adjectival and the copulative part of the predicate.
Within noun phrases, adjectives do not show agreement with the noun, though pronouns do. e.g.a szép könyveitekkel "with your nice books" ("szép": nice): the suffixes of the plural, the possessive "your" and the case marking "with" are only marked on the noun.
In theScandinavian languages, adjectives (bothattributive andpredicative) are declined according to thegender,number, anddefiniteness of the noun they modify. InIcelandic andFaroese, adjectives are also declined according togrammatical case, unlike the other Scandinavian languages.
In some cases inSwedish,Norwegian andDanish, adjectives and participles aspredicates appear to disagree with their subjects. This phenomenon is referred to aspancake sentences.
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | Definite (strong inflection) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liten | Lita | Lite | Små | Lille |
InNorwegian nynorsk,Swedish,Icelandic andFaroese the past participle must agree in gender, number and definiteness when the participle is in anattributive orpredicative position. In Icelandic and Faroese, past participles would also have to agree in grammatical case.
InNorwegian bokmål andDanish it is only required to decline past participles in number and definiteness when in anattributive position.
MostSlavic languages are highly inflected, except forBulgarian andMacedonian. The agreement is similar to Latin, for instance between adjectives and nouns in gender, number, case andanimacy (if counted as a separate category). The following examples are fromSerbo-Croatian:
Verbs have 6 different forms in the present tense, for three persons in singular and plural. As in Latin, subject is frequently dropped.
Another characteristic is agreement in participles, which have different forms for different genders:
Swahili, like all otherBantu languages, has numerousnoun classes. Verbs must agree in class with their subjects and objects, and adjectives with the nouns that they qualify. For example:Kitabukimojakitatosha (One book will be enough),Mchungwammojautatosha (One orange-tree will be enough),Chungwa mojalitatosha (One orange will be enough).
There is also agreement in number. For example:Vitabuviwilivitatosha (Two books will be enough),Michungwamiwiliitatosha (Two orange-trees will be enough),Machungwamawiliyatatosha (Two oranges will be enough).
Class and number are indicated with prefixes (or sometimes their absence), which are not always the same for nouns, adjectives and verbs, as illustrated by the examples.
Manysign languages have developed verb agreement with person. TheASL verb for "see" (V handshape), moves from the subject to the object. In the case of a third person subject, it goes from a locationindexed to the subject to the object, and vice versa. Also, inGerman Sign Language not all verbs are capable of subject/object verb agreement, so anauxiliary verb is used to convey this, carrying the meaning of the previous verb while still inflecting for person.
In addition, some verbs also agree with theclassifier the subject takes. In theAmerican Sign Language verb for "to be under", the classifier a verb takes goes under a downward-facing B handshape (palm facing downward). For example, if a person or an animal was crawled under something, A V handshape with bent fingers would go under the palm, but if it was a pencil, a 1-handshape (pointer finger out) would go under the palm.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)