IELTS Grammar: subject + verb

Question: Which of the following is a correct sentence?

1. Learning a foreign language.
2. Firstly, learning a foreign language in order to improve your career prospects.
3. For example, learning a foreign language by living in a country where that language is spoken, and communicating with native speakers on a daily basis.

Answer: None of these are correct sentences. None of them has a main verb.

To make a sentence, you need a subject (noun/noun phrase) and a verb:

1. I am learning a foreign language. OR, Learning a foreign language is useful.
2. Firstly, many people learn a foreign language in order to improve their career prospects.
3. For example, some people learn a foreign language by living in a country where that language is spoken and communicating with native speakers on a daily basis.

Some students really need to work on writing correct "subject + verb" sentences. Missing the verb in a sentence is a serious mistake that will definitely affect your score.

Comments

[Dana]

Hi Simon

Thank you very much for all your effort on this excellent web site
Could you please explain to me what they mean by "freesing the public sector"...."fielded" .....and" pay restraint" in this article
Many Thanks

((David Cameron has defended his government's decision to freeze public sector pay for two years, saying the alternative would be to "lose more jobs".

In a special edition of Question Time, Mr Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg fielded questions from the public about the decisions made in the Budget.

He told Glasgow firefighter Denise Christie: "We either have to have pay restraint like we have, or we lose jobs."}}

[Omy]

Hi Simon

I'm interested on buying the e-book, and I wonder how could I use it to improve my writing, speaking and reading skills.
I am aiming to get 8-9 as an overall.

Has the book any exercises to follow and check?

Could you please email me back
Many Thanks
Omy

Which is safer to pay the visa or Paypal?
Thanks again

[Elena]

hi, Simon.
I have one question in relation to general preperation to IELTS.

What learning technic is better?
1. to study everyday for each type of IELTS question - a little bit listening, a little bit reading and so on.

or

2.to study just one or two parts but - spending on them more time - like writing essays for 5 hours.

Beacuse I realise that when i spend more time on doing one thing, it is keeping me really concentrated. But at the same time if i am studying all parts each day, it is good constant practise ...

So what is your advise?

Thank you!

[Simon]

Hi Dana,

1. To keep salaries the same (no pay rises) for state/government workers.

2. "took" questions.

3. limits on pay/salaries.

...

Hi Omy,

I emailed you back. PayPal and Visa are both really safe in my experience.

...

Hi Elena,

This is a very interesting question, and I don't think there is a correct answer. I would advise doing whatever works best for you, or whatever you feel more motivated to do on any particular day - maybe sometimes one technique, sometimes the other?

Hope this helps

[Dana]

Thank you for expaining the meanining
I am highly appreciated it

[Simon]

No problem Dana.

[Feifei]

Hi Simon
Wish you had a fantastic holiday :D.

I encountered a couple of issues related to the usage of singular and plural,i.e.
the increase in divorces these days is often attributed to the selfishness of young generation.

can you explaine that "divorces" is plural here , but "is " is being used as the correspondent verb.

Furthermore,I attribute the higer numbers of suicide in Japan to the overstressed life of Japanese.

can you specify the reason why I should use "the higher numbers..." instead of " the higher number..."

thank you very much.

[Simon]

Hi Feifei,

Good questions!

1. The verb "is" goes with the subject "the increase" (singular) i.e. the increase is...

2. I think it would be better to write "the higher number of suicides" i.e. "number" is singular and "suicides" is plural.

Hope this helps

[Trang Tran]

Hi Simon,
I want to ask you a question related to subject and verb agreement. I wonder whether two uncountable nouns (combined by the word "and") take singular or plural verb. Thanks!

[Simon]

Hi Trang,

They would take a plural verb e.g. information and advice ARE useful.