Subject and Verb Agreement Errors

The rules of syntax suggest that if the subject is singular, the verb must be in the singular too. In this case, the subject and the verb phrase in English sentences should agree in number and person. E.g. I have, He has, show the variation of the verb to agree with the subject. A boy writes, two boys write. Yule (2010, p. 83) states that “agreement is partially based on the category of number (singular or plural) and person (first, second or third person)”.

Subject and verb agreement errors are the second highest type of error in Emirati students‟ writings. The overall errors of subject and verb agreement rated 350 (15%) out of 2300 errors. The students created four types of errors which were characterized as substitution, addition, omission and misuse.

Substitution errors are errors where the students had substituted a word for another. For example, the students replaced „has‟ for „have‟ and „is‟ for „are‟ in the examples (1, 2 in table 9). The students used the wrong form of the verb; it should be „have‟ as it refers to a plural noun in example (1). Has is only used with singular nouns. The student also used the wrong form of verb „be‟ with „there‟ structures; it should be „are‟ as it refers to a plural noun (2). It is possible that the reason why this type of error occurred is that the students might not realize the restricted rules because of insufficient knowledge in how the subject and verb work. According to Murcia-Celce and Diane (1999), „be‟, which is the most frequent verb in

Error Classification Error identification Error correction Frequency %

Misuse 1. I am *go to Dubai this evening. 2. Suddenly he fell and *break his leg.

I am going to…. Suddenly he fell and broke his leg

110 30%

Substitution 3. Last week I *am in Dubai. Last week I was in

Dubai. 55 15%

Omission 4. If he play^ long hours. If he plays … 145 39%

Addition 5. Some games *makes the person

more….

Some games make

the person.. 60 16%

English, has more distinct forms with respect to person, number, and tense than any other verb in English.” Hence, L2 learners experience difficulties when trying to understand and comprehend the correct function and usage of the basic syntactic structures such as verbs: „be‟, „have‟, and „do‟, since there are no counterparts in Arabic. As these verbs greatly influence English syntax, they are a challenge for most L2 learners. The total number of substitution error is 110 (31%) errors.

Addition errors are errors where the students had placed an incorrect ending of a word as in example (3) where the student added the inflection „s‟ to a verb with a plural subject. This error has been observed in almost most of the students‟ writings. It can be possibly attributed to insufficient practice or lack of knowledge of the rules. They do not understand that the verb should always agree with the subject, i.e. a singular subject is followed by the singular verb form, and the plural subject is followed by the plural verb form. James (1998) viewed that these errors are similar to those committed by children acquiring English as their L1. Such errors have been known as developmental because they reflect the developmental stages through which L2 learners‟ progress in learning. The total number of addition error is 100 (29%).

Omission errors are errors where the students had dropped an ending such as the 3rd person singular –„s‟ ending or verb „be‟ as in example (4, 5) in Table (9). The students left out the verb „be‟ in example (4). This is probably because Arabic sentences can occur without verbs. In addition, there is no equivalent verb in Arabic when the verb to „be‟ is used as the main verb in the present tense in a sentence. In example (5), the students omitted ‟s‟ marker from the verb with a singular subject pronoun. This might occur because of Arabic language interference since„s‟ marker doesn‟t exist in the Arabic language. Murcia-Celce and Diane (1999, p. 57) confirm that subject-verb agreement poses a problem mainly in the present tense, where the third person singular forms are inflected while others are not. The total number of omission errors is 63 (18%).

Misuse Errors are errors where the students formed the verb of some subjects incorrectly as in example (6). Such indefinite pronouns always take the singular form and can only be used with a singular verb. Problems concerning the correct use of subject-verb agreement arise because the indefinite pronouns are conceptually plural, but grammatically singular. According to Murcia-Celce and Diane (1999, p. 58), the reason for that problem is

that subject-verb agreement has both syntactic and semantic features. This error has been observed in almost most of the students‟ papers. This is possibly attributed to the insufficient practice or incomplete knowledge of the rules. This type of error amounts to 77 errors (22%).

Table 9 Examples of Subject -Verb Agreement Errors

Error Classification Error Identification Error Correction Frequency % Substitution 1. Computer games *has …

2. There *is many negative effects.

Computer games have…. There are many negative effects.

110 31%

Addition 3. They * plays most …. They play … 100 29% Omission 4.It ^a bad experience.

5.He play^

It was a bad experience. He plays …..

63 18%

Misuse 6. Everything in our life *have ..

Everything in our life has.. 77 22%

Total 350(15%) 100%