Irregular verbs, subject-verb agreement, and more part 13

• irregular verbs: Verbs that don't take on the spelling patterns of typical conjugation
• Subject verb agreement:

  1. if a subject is singular, the verb must be singular. If a subject is plural, the verb must be plural
  2. If a subject consists of two or more words connected by "and" or by "both ... and" the subject is plural
  3. use a singular verb when two or more subjects are connected by "and" and they refer to the same thing
  4. Use a singular verb when two or more subjects connected by "and" are preceded by "Each", "Every", "Many a", or "Many an"
• more about subject verb agreement:

  1. If the subject consists of two or more singular words connected by "or", "either ... or", "Neither ... nor", or "not only ... but also", the subject is singular
  2. If the subjects consists of two or more plural words connected by "or", "Either ... or", "Neither ... nor", or "not only ... but also", the subject is plural
  3. If the subject is made up of both singular and plural words connected by the words above, the verb agrees with the nearer part of the subject
  4. Each, every, neither, one, another, and much are always singular
  5. Compound pronouns are always singular
• Subjunctive mood: used to express a contrary to fact condition, use "were" instead of "was"
• Split infinitives: inserting an adverb between "to" and the verb, avoid doing this
• Active vs passive voice:

  1. An active verb directs the action towards the object. passive verbs direct the action towards the subject
  2. Active voice is usually better, but passive voice is used when someone made an error