The 1-S Rule – Part 1

What is the 1-S Rule? Well, this is a term I have coined. You won’t find it anywhere else! The grammar experts will call it subject-verb agreement.

We’re going to look at this rule because the learners usually commit errors here. The main error they commit is with the ACTION WORD – the verb. Let’s look at this in detail.

Look at this table:

Correct Sentences	Number of 'S's	Wrong Sentences	Number of 'S's
The dog barks.	1	The dog bark.	0
The dogs bark.	1	The dogs barks.	2

The number of ‘s’s in the correct sentences is just ONE.

But in the wrong ones, there is NO ‘S’ in the first sentence, and there are 2 ‘S’s in the second.

This means we can have ONLY ONE ‘S’ in a sentence – not more, not less.

That’s why I call it the 1-S Rule. In grammar they say,

Use singular verb for singular subjects and plural verbs for plural subjects.

The grammar chaps call it the subject-verb agreement. Ouch!

I like to call it the 1-S Rule. Very simple, you see?

We’ll look at 12 different situations where this rule applies in weird ways. Unless you know the rule, you won’t know the application. But, once I tell you, you’ll say: I knew it!

The 12 situations are:

1. BASIC / GENERAL Application:
2. EVERYONE / EVERYBODY
3. EACH / EVERY
4. AND
5. COLLECTIVE NOUNS
6. ALL / SOME
7. NONE
8. FRACTIONS / PERCENTAGES / MAJORITY / MINORITY
9. TOGETHER WITH / ALONG WITH / AS WELL AS
10. EITHER / NEITHER
11. ONE OF / SOME OF
12. THE IN-BETWEEN PHRASES

We’re going to look at these in small bits because that will make it easy to understand and remember. Remember, taking small bites will help you chew the food properly and digest it easily as well!

This is the first set of 3 situations:

1. BASIC / GENERAL Application:
2. EVERYONE / EVERYBODY
3. EACH / EVERY

See them here.