I am having trouble with these tricky subject-verb thingys.?

Question

Can you help me with these subject-verb. I wrote down what I think. I have to identify the error and explain how to fix them.
1, Your mind, your body, and your soul, all benifits from karate.
Your mind, your body, and your soul, all benifit from karate.
2. Each of the martial arts have a different emphasis or technique.
Each of the martial arts has a different emphasis or technique.
3. Either the tonfa,the sei,or the bow is used in advanced katas.
Either the tonfa, the sei, or the bow are used in advanced katas.
4. The Japanese army have found that karate is excellent training for the military.
The Japanese army has found that karate is excellent training.
5. The series of moves known as the kata are almost like a dance.
confused !
6. None of the students are allowed to use their karate to hurt people, except in self-defence.
confused....sounds right
7. Everyone in the class have to be willing to work hard.
me) Everyone in the class has to be willing to work har

Answer 1

THANK YOU for asking a decent academic question and showing that you've thought about it instead of just typing in your homework question! I'm giving you a star just for being a real student!

Now that the love fest's over, here's some tips on subject-verb agreement, which is tough for lots and lots of people.

As others have said above, the verb is the main action in the sentence, and the subject is who or what is doing the action. Every sentence can be boiled down, in its simplest form, to one verb and one subject, like "He runs."

Go through each sentence and circle the subject. Here's where some of the challenge comes in. Obviously, in "He runs," "he" is the subject. But in your sentences, which are much more advanced, you get compound subjects and subjects that people think are plural when they're really singular. So let's look at the subjects.

1. Your mind, your body, and your soul
Key--this is a compound subject with AND. This makes it PLURAL.
Therefore, your correction is exactly right; "benefits" is the singular version of the verb, and you need the plural version "benefit."

2. Each of the martial arts
When you're working with sentences like this, especially when you KNOW you're being tested on subject-verb agreement, go through and cross out *every* single prepositional phrase. They are only distractions, and don't affect the s-v agreement at all.

Prepositional phrases start with a preposition, those little words that express position or relationship, like "in," "on," "at," "over," "as," etc.

Here, you'd cross out "of the martial arts," because it is a preposition + noun, so it's a prepositional phrase. You're left with "each." Think about "each." It means "each ONE," right? So is it plural or singular?

3. Either the tonfa, the sei, or the bow
Key word here is "either." What does either mean? ONE of those three things is used. Each thing listed is singular. So is the subject singular or plural? And should the verb be "is" or "are?"

4. Two subjects, with two verbs, in this one:
a. Japanese army
This is a collective noun, that encompasses a bunch of things. Other similar words are "class," or "band," or "team," or "family." Even though these are all about a bunch of people, each is ONE unit, right? Like, you have just the one Japanese army. So plural or singular? Has found or have found?

b. karate
Singular or plural?

5. The series of moves known as the kafa
Remember the rule in #2--cross out all the prepositional phrases. Here, the prepositions are "of" and "as," so what can you cross out?

You should be left with "series" as the subject. Series here refers to ONE series of movements. Singular or plural?

6. None of the students
Cross out the prep. phrase. You're left with "none." I actually wasn't sure about this one, so I looked it up. Check out this page in the second paragraph under "1" for a great, quick explanation.

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/sv_agr.htm

7. Everyone in the class
Cross out the prepositional phrase. You're left with "Everyone."
There's a great explanation for "everyone" right by the one for "none" on the page above.

Hope that helps. I know it feels tedious now, but this is one of the things that instantly marks your writing as less polished and of dubious worth if you make mistakes in it--learning how to do it right will serve you well in your education and career, and you've pretty much got it already!

Answer 2

You are doing pretty well. Here's what can help you do even better ... SUBSTITUTION.
Example:
Number 5: Take everything in front of the verb, that is the "noun phrase". Now substitute an equivalent but simpler noun ("the moves"), and say the sentence again ...
"The series are ..."
Now it is easier to see and hear if you have the right verb.
Series can be singular or plural. But if you look at what the sentence is saying, the speaker is probably talking about one series of moves, which would be singular, so you need to use "is".

Practice looking at the sentence and mentally throwing away all the pretty descriptive words (like "known as the kata"). Then you will be able to recognize the noun and verb, and the analysis becomes easier.

Answer 3

5. The series of moves known as the kata, are almost like a dance. correct (series is plural of one so use are).

6. None of the students are allowed to use their karate to hurt people, except in self-defence. ( This is correct).

Answer 4

You're on the right track. For 5 and 6, use 'is'. In 5, the noun in question is 'series' which is singular even though it ends in 's'. In 6, the noun is 'none' which is treated as singular for the same reason that 'everyone' is.

Answer 5

Ok so what's your question then? just because the person has a poor way of verbalizing what they are trying to say doesn't mean anything, they just have a different way of trying to make it clear to the students. all it seems to me is that you're just trying to point out the PROPER way to write or type them down, which to say is just being proper or anal rententive about it. while I commend your attempt to be Ms. (or Mrs. ) proper here, I have to ask: Why Are you sweating over improper forming of their statements or grammar? You're there to learn Martial Arts, not learn proper grammar and sentence forming. So I wouldn't point this out to the instructor, because it's just your opinion as to how it should be written and it's irrelevant to the physical studies of Martial Arts. but if you want to help the instructor rewrite the student manual or rules so that it looks better then yeah make your suggestion to them.

Answer 6

The subject is "who" or "what" is doing something in the sentence.
A verb is an action that is being done.

Examples:

Vinny went to the barber shop.
Vinny is the subject, went is the verb

I am hungry
I is the subject, am is the linking verb

I have flown south to Antarctica.
I is the subject, HAVE flown is the verb.

I won't tell you the exact answers (sorry) because you should do your own homework, but hope this makes it easier to understand.