Dr. Grammar says:

“What’s wrong with these sentences? The number of people studying in English centres are increasing in Vietnam.”

EXPLANATION:

(Before starting this lesson, take a look at last week’s lesson introducing noun phrases.)

Now that we know how to make noun phrases, we can use them as the subject of our sentences. However, this means we need to make sure that the verb agrees with the noun phrase. So how do we do this? First, we identify the head noun.

The head noun is the original noun (a thing, person, place etc) we are describing which then has information added to it. For example, let’s start by making a noun phrase using a simple noun, and then add information to it:

A tree (just a single noun and article)

(big or small?) = A big tree

(what colour is it?) = A big green tree

(where is it?) = A big green tree in the garden

To find the head noun in this phrase is easy as we followed the steps of making the noun phrase. The head noun is tree. So how do we find the head noun when we can’t watch the noun phrase being built?

Let’s look at a new noun phrase:

The beautifully built red house in my village

First we need to find all the nouns. There are 4 nouns (including a pronoun) in this phrase:

The beautifully built red brick house in my village

To find the head noun, look for the last noun before the propositional phrase:

The beautifully built red brick ( = noun one) house in my village ( = prepositional phrase)

Head noun = house

Why do we need to find the head noun?

By finding the head noun we then know whether to use the singular or plural verb form. Let’s look at the following two sentences. One of the sentences is correct, one is wrong:

1. The new red motorbike next to the older blue bikes are mine.

2. The new red motorbike next to the older blue bikes is mine.

First, find the head noun (the last noun before the prepositional phrase). The head noun is motorbike. Motorbike is singular, so we need to say “motorbike + is”, which means that sentence 2 is correct.

However, there is an exception to this rule:

The number of chickens is increasing. =

This sentence follows the rule as “number” is the last noun before the prepositional phrase, so we need to use “is”.

An increasing number of chickens are laying eggs.

A growing number of people are visiting Vietnam for their holidays.

In these phrases, “number” is before a preposition, but “an increasing number of” is the same as “more and more”. Therefore, “number” is not the head noun, “chickens” and “people” are the head nouns. As these two nouns are plural, we must use “are”.

So…

The number of people studying in English centres are increasing in Vietnam. X

The number of people studying in English centres is increasing in Vietnam. √

EXERCISE:

Choose the correct form of the verb by finding the head nouns and making the subjects and verbs agree:

1. My favourite pet is/are my dog.

2. The most beautiful sports car in the world is/are a Ferrari, in my opinion.

3. The number of foreign people living in Vietnam is/are increasing.

4. An increasing number of Vietnamese people is/are studying English so they can study abroad.

5. In England, the weather during most summers is/are often quite pleasant, but most winters is/are cold and wet.

Answers:

1. pet + is

2. car + is

3. number + is

4. people + are

5. weather + is; winters + are

FURTHER PRACTICE:

Read through the article “Megacities” and find the noun phrases which are subjects. Locate the head noun, and see if this noun agrees with the main verb. If it doesn’t, you probably have not found the correct head noun!

Now, write about some ways in which your hometown/city is changing. You can write about population, the economy, transportation and buildings etc. Try to make some of your own noun phrases, and make sure the subjects and verbs agree.

This material is provided by the Australian Centre for Education and Training (ACET).