Subject-Verb Agreement

Secara umum pada bentuk present tense, singular verb berupa base form (bentuk dasar) dari verb dengan ditambahkan suffix (akhiran) -s. Adapun pada plural verb tanpa ditambahkan suffix -s (sebaliknya, plural subject ditambahkan suffix -s). Aturan kata kerja ini berlaku pula pada subjek berupa third person (orang ketiga, contoh: Ricky, Anna) dan semua personal pronoun (they, we= jamak; he, she, it= tunggal), kecuali I dan you. Walaupun berupa subjek tunggal, I dan you dipasangkan dengan kata kerja bentuk jamak.

Contoh Kalimat Subject-Verb Agreement

• The sun rises.
• The stars shine.
• Leo rarely eats white bread.
• You go straight ahead then turn left.

Namun jika ada helping verb, maka helping verb-nya yang berubah sedangkan main verb dalam bentuk dasar (base form verb). Pilihan helping verb dalam bentuk tunggal-jamak-nya adalah is-are, does-do, dan has-have. Khusus untuk has-have, agreement tidak berlaku jika kata tersebut merupakan second helping verb atau digunakan dibelakang helping verb lainnya.

Contoh Kalimat Subject-Verb Agreement

• My boss always comes on time.
• They like eating out.
• He is working.
• I do submit the task.
• The manager has checked the documents.
• The cat will have been sleeping (has-have TIDAK BERLAKU)

Sedangkan pada past tense, tidak ada perbedaan bentuk kata kerja dalam hal number (tunggal atau jamak)  jika tidak ada helping verb, yaitu: was-were.

Contoh Kalimat Subject-Verb Agreement

• The cat was sleeping.
• We were roasting corn.
• She drove fast. (TIDAK BERLAKU)

Adapun jika kata kerja yang digunakan berupa linking verb, maka is, am (khusus I), was (past tense) digunakan oleh singular subject, sedangkan are dan were (past tense) oleh plural subject.

Contoh Kalimat Subject-Verb Agreement

• Ricky is smart.
• The children are naughty.
• I was a stamp collector.
• My books were borrowed by him.

Beberapa Contoh Paragraf

Do you have trouble remembering new words in English? Many people have this problem. This method may help you to remember new words. Look at the new word. Look at the letters and the shape of the word. Close your ayes. Can you see the word? Listen to the word. Listen to the sounds in the word. Look at the word as you listen. Say the word aloud. Close your book. Do not look at the word. Can you say it? Write the word. Write it three or four times. Say the word as you write it. Use the new word. Use it in class today, and use it at home tonight. Use it tomorrow and next week. Look for the new word in the newspaper or the radio or on television and listen to it. To remember a new word, you must use it.

Computer chips have changed our way of life. With computer chips me can make very small computers. Space scientists use these small computers in satellites and space ships. Large companies use these small computers for business. We can make very small calculators with computer chips. Some cal­culators are as small as a c-edit card, and these calculators are not very ex­pensive. Computer chips are also used for making digital watches. A normal watch has a spring and moving hands, but a digital watch has no moving parts. A digital watch shows the time end the date with numbers, and some digital watches even have an alarm and a stop-watch. The computer chip makes all of this possible.

Today most cars use gasoline, but in the future many people may drive electric cars. Electric cars do not pollute the air. Electricity from a battery powers the motor of an electric car. Drivers of electric cars do not fill their cars with gasoline; they connect their cars to an electrical outlet to charge the battery with electricity. The driver of an electric car connects the car to an electrical outlet at night. In the morning, the battery is charged with enough electricity to drive all day. Electric cars are not as fast as gasoline-powered cars and they cannot travel more than 150 miles (270 kilometers). After 150 miles, the driver must charge the battery again. However, electric cars may be one answer to the problems of pollution and high gasoline prices.


Sumber :
JOSS BAHASA INGGRIS DALAM 30 HARI
Badiatul Roziqin
penerbit DIVA Press ( Anggota IKAPI )
Banguntapan Jogjakarta