Verb Errors

SUBJECT/VERB AGREEMENT ERRORS: When verb case does not agree with the subject of
its clause, this is considered an error of grammar. Subject/Verb Agreement Errors (marked s/v
agr on !our assignments" occur most often for the following reasons#
Distance: $istance between the subject and the verb# a string of modif!ing %hrases that include
other nouns or %ronouns comes between the subject and verb, and this makes the writer lose
track of the real subject of the clause.
E&am%le#
'he house on this street with the cano%! of shad! trees are too e&%ensive.
Questions: (uestions or clauses in which the verb comes before the subject# inverted word
order %ut an object noun in front of the verb, making the writer think it is the subject.
E&am%le#
)overing over the basket of a%%les were a swarm of bees.
Ine!inite "ronouns: 'he number (singular or %lural" of an indefinite %ronoun used as the
subject of a clause is confused with the number of some other noun.
E&am%le#
Each of m! friends who smoke alread! have grave health %roblems.
Co#$oun Sub%ects: A writer loses sight of the conjunction used to join two or more subject
nouns (or %ronouns"* this occurs most often with (n"either . . . (n"or . . . .
E&am%les#
Either m! aunt or m! cousin have the cookbook m! grandmother wrote. +oth m! aunt and m!
cousin for man! !ears has fought to kee% that cookbook for herself.
IRREGU&AR VERBS an CONJUGATION ERRORS: $o an! of the following sentences use
verbs correctl!,
-n this militar! cemeter!, bodies are lain to rest with a twent!.one gun salute.
+efore us were thousands of grave markers wherever the dead laid.
/icnics are forbidden here, but 0arsha lied down on the grass an!wa!s.
After the dinner %lates were la!ed, 0atilda would lie a folded dinner na%kin over them.
After the sum%tuous %icnic, the four of us returned home, laid down on the king si1e bed, and
watched cham%ionshi% bowling.
+ett! and 2amieson were lieing aslee% on to% of the remote, so we couldn3t change the channel.
4ecalling the afternoon at the militar! cemeter!, 5armine remarked about +ett! and 2amieson
that the dead now la! all around us.
-f -3m l!in3, -3m fl!in3.
'wo of the sentences above do use verbs correctl!. )owever, one of them, the last one, uses
l!in3 with an entirel! different meaning from the others. 6therwise, with the e&ce%tion of 3the
dead3 now la! all around us, the rest are wrong7ridiculousl! wrong8 9a!/lie are the most
confused verbs in the English language, not onl! because the! are ver! similar in meaning, but
because the! are conjugated irregularl! and some of their conjugated forms resemble one
another. 'Con%u(ation' is a )or use to escribe *o) +erbs are in!,ecte- or $ronounce-
accorin( to t*e sub%ect.s (ener- nu#ber- #oo- or $erson. -n the vast majorit! of cases,
verbs in English have ver! de%endable rules for conjugation. 'ake the base verb sho%, for
instance. -ts conjugation is regular and stead!# the base verb form doesn3t change from one
conjugated form to the ne&t, including its verbal forms#
sho%, sho%s, sho%%ed, sho%%ing, will have been sho%%ing, to sho%, go sho%%ing
-n all of these, the base verb form sho% is de%endable, even if s%elling rules re:uire the addition
of another % in words like sho%%ed and sho%%ing. ;urthermore, the %ast tense ending is
formed b! the sim%le addition of .ed (or, in the case of verbs that alread! end in .e, then the
sim%le addition of .d". 0ost verbs are like this# wash becomes washed* bake becomes
baked* and so on.
<
)owever, we can describe the most common word in the English language, be, as far from
regular and de%endable. 9ike man! others, its base form changes according to tense (%ast,
%resent, future", %erson (-, !ou, the!" and number (singular or %lural"# be, is, was, were, being, will
have been -s and were are radicall! different words, even though the!3re the same verbs. 'his
is what we mean b! -rregular Verb ;orms. 9oads of commonl! used verbs in the English
language are irregular. Some irregular verbs share common conjugations because the! derive
from the same language roots, but, in the majorit! of cases, rules don3t reall! a%%l!. =ou
%robabl! know take is an irregular verb because took as a %ast tense form does not use the
e&%ected .ed ending. Wh!, then, doesn3t make become mook, -f ring becomes rang and
rung, wh! doesn3t bring become brang and brung, instead of brought, -f swim becomes
swam and swum, wh! doesn3t trim become tram and trum,
'he reasons are com%licated. ;or some verbs, it3s a linguistic matter. ;or others, it3s about the
derivation of the verb. ;or others still, its about the historical transformation certain sounds in the
language have undergone. All of these are of little concern to the writer tr!ing to avoid the
common mistakes of irregular verbs. =ou just have to memori1e and %ractice conjugating
irregular verbs in order to master them. 9et3s continue with lie and la!, the two most confusing
verbs in the English
language# lie, v. intransitive
be in a hori1ontal %osture* be situated (-n ever! dark heart lies a seed of goodness." %resent
tense# lie* lies %ast tense# la!, %resent %artici%le (%rogressive tense"# l!ing ('here3s a strange cat
l!ing on the back of our couch.", %ast %artici%le (%erfect tense"# lain ('he la1iest among them
had lain on the couch all da! long.", la!, v. transitive, %ut into a hori1ontal %osture* situate a
%erson or thing ()e gentl! la!s the infant into her crib.", %resent tense# la!* la!s, %ast tense# laid
%resent %artici%le (%rogressive tense"# la!ing (0a& and - are la!ing car%et in the hall this week.",
%ast %artici%le (%erfect tense"# laid (/enelo%e had laid bushel baskets over the roses, which
%rotected them from the frost."
+ecause both of these verbs are irregular, !ou have to commit to memor! their different
conjugations. -f !ou want to avoid confusion, however, between the two verbs, remember that
lie is intransitive (it doesn3t take an object", while la! is transitive (it alwa!s takes an object".
6ther common irregular verbs#
choose, chose, had chosen
dig, dug, had dug
forego, forewent, foregone
get, got, had gotten
have, has, had had
%lead, %leaded (or %led", had %leaded (had %led"
read, read, had read
rise, rose, had risen
seek, sought, had sought
5onfusing irregular verbs#
bet, bet, had bet (but not betted"
bleed, bled, had bled (not bleeded"
bu!, bought, had bought (but not boughten"
cast, cast, had cast (but not casted"
cost, cost, had cost (but not costed"
cut, cut, had cut (but not cutted"
fit, fit, had fit (when an intransitive verb or linking verb"# =esterda!, the %ants had fit snugl!."
fit, fitted, had fitted (when transitive# 'oda!, the tailor fitted the %ants to him correctl!."
flee, fled, had fled (not fleed"
forbid, forbade, had forbidden (not forbad or had forbid"
go, went, had gone (not had went"
grind, ground, had ground (not had grind or grinded"
hang, hanged, had hanged (when a form of e&ecution"
>
hang, hung, had hung (when not a form of e&ecution"
hurt, hurt, had hurt (not hurted or had hurted"
mistake, mistook, had mistaken (not had mistook or mistooken"
%ut, %ut, had %ut (never %utted, which is something done in the s%ort of golf"
:uit, :uit, had :uit (but not :uitted"
set, set, had set (but not setted"
shake, shook, shaken (but not shooken nor shook as a %ast %artici%le, as in )e was shook u%
b! the incident."
shear, sheared, had sheared / shear, shore, had shorn (either of these %ast and %artici%les forms
is correct"
sit, sat, had sat (but not set"
s%it, s%it/s%at, had s%it/s%at (but not s%itted"
swell, swelled, had swollen (but not swoll"
think, thought, had thought (not thunk"
tread, trod, had trodden (not trodded"
wind, wound, had wound (but not winded, which means out of breath and is %ronounced with a
short i"
4egular verbs mistaken for irregular verbs
drag, dragged, had dragged (not drug or drugged"
dread, dreaded, had dreaded (not dred or drud"
%rove, %roved, had %roved (had %roven is %ermitted, but %roven is used more commonl! to
mean verified"
raise, raised, had raised (not rose"
rela!, rela!ed, had rela!ed (not relaid or relain"
COM"OUND VERBS an "ARA&&E&ISM ERRORS: When two or more verbs are used
together in the same clause (or two or more verbals are used together in the same structure",
the! should share the same conjugation in order to be %arallel to one another. )owever,
sometimes irregular verbs are mi&ed with regular ones, and this can confuse some writers. 'ake,
for e&am%le, the following sentence#
At that time, 0argie had sought, but as !et not got, the full.time job in marketing she wanted.
'he sentence above ma! sound correct, but it actuall! contains a conjugation error# got should
be gotten because had sought is written in the %ast %erfect verb tense, and gotten must be in
the same tense in order for the verbs to be %arallel# had sought and had gotten (not had
got". )ere3s another#
-n his time, Shakes%eare3s actors were said to have fret and strut their hour u%on the stage.
)ave fret is the %resent %erfect of fret but have strutted is the %resent %erfect tense of strut
(not have strut".
-n most cases, however, the %roblem occurs as an un.%arallel mi&ture of sim%le %ast tense with
%ast %erfect tense#
-n last !ear3s triathlon, 5hris had run, swam, and bic!cled with markedl! better times than in this
!ear3s triathlon.
+ecause had run is the %ast %erfect tense, swum (not swam is the %arallel verb form# had
run, had swum, and had bic!cled."
Ever! !ear for the last five, she had sacrificed her vacation and instead underwent elective
cosmetic surger!.
As with the other e&am%les, had sacrificed is a %ast %erfect/%ast %artici%le form of the regular
verb sacrifice, so had undergone should be %arallel to it instead of had underwent.
/0"/ENATED VERBS an CONJUGATION ODDITIES: -n most cases, h!%henated verbs are
no different from /hrasal Verbs. 'he!3re conjugated just as the! would be if the! were not
h!%henated. Some h!%henated verbs, however, confuse us more than others and make us doubt
the rules. A %hrasal verb such as knock.around is sim%le enough# its %ast %erfect form is had
knocked around.
?
What about the verb mouse.over, however, Should the %ast tense be moused.over or
mouse.overed,
What about the cowbo! vernacular, gidd!u%, which means go ahead, or move along,
Should the %ast %artici%le form be giddiedu% or gidd!u%%ed, Should the %ast %article of
wash.and.wear be washed.and.worn or wash.and.worn,
As a rule, !ou3ll never go wrong b! breaking down the %hrasal verb into its base verb form and
%re%osition, as two (or more" se%arate words, then correctl! conjugating the base verb form#
moused over* knocked around* even giddied u% and washed and worn.
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