English Second Language·Grammar & language usage · NSSCO 1.3
Nouns, articles & subject–verb agreement (concord)
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Three little helpers do quiet, important work in almost every sentence: nouns (naming words), articles (a, an, the), and concord (making the subject and the verb agree). We'll sort common from proper nouns, countable from uncountable, learn to choose 'a' or 'an' by the sound and not the spelling, decide when to use 'the', and finish by matching singular subjects to singular verbs and plural to plural — fixing the classic slips like 'an advice' and 'She have three childs' along the way.
What you'll learn in this lesson
By the end you should be able to (NSSCO English Second Language 1.3):
- Identify nouns and tell common nouns from proper nouns, and begin proper nouns with a capital letter
- Tell countable nouns from uncountable nouns and use them correctly (avoiding errors such as 'an advice' and 'informations')
- Recognise collective nouns as one group treated as one thing
- Choose between the articles 'a' and 'an' by the sound of the following word, not its first letter
- Use 'the' for something specific and known, and 'a' or 'an' for a first mention or any one
- Apply concord so that a singular subject takes a singular verb and a plural subject takes a plural verb
- Handle tricky concord cases: everyone/each/neither, subjects joined by 'and', collective nouns, and a phrase between the subject and the verb
- Correct common noun, article and concord errors in a given sentence
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Miss Veronica and Mike talk through the whole topic — with the figure and working drawn live.