Agreement Between Subjects and Verbs

Examine these following sentences:

• The banana is ripe.
• The girl is angry.
• The man has money.
• She does not know where he is.
• My brother likes sweets.

• The bananas are ripe.
• The girls are angry.
• The men have money.
• They do not know where he is.
• My brother and my sister like sweets.

From the two sets of examples above you see that verbs (in bold) agree with their subjects in number. Singular subjects take singular verbs. Plural subjects take plural verbs. Usually singular verbs take "-s" ending. Some verbs especially those that end with "-o" like "to do" and "to go" or those that end with "-tch" or "-th" take "-es" ending for the singular form. Examples are:

• to sit - sits
• to drink - drinks
• to eat - eats
• to catch - catches
• to watch - watches
• to go - goes
• to do - does
• to move - moves

A care must be taken for the verb "to be" and "to have" because they take their singular forms in quite different ways from the regular verbs. "to have" becomes "has" and "to be" is a little tricky to get both the singular and plural forms:

"To be" becomes:

• I am (singular)
• You are (singular)
• He is (singular)
• She is (singular)
• It is (singular)
• We are (plural)
• You are (plural)
• They are (plural)

Adjective and Possessive Pronouns

Adjective pronouns or sometimes they are called adjective determiners are pronouns that describe belongings. Adjective pronouns in English are my, your, his, her, our, your (plural) and their.
The following instances describe the use of the adjective pronouns:

He's just borrowed my book (bukuku).
I don't need your money (uangmu).
I don't know his name (namanya, nama seorang laki-laki).
I think it is her car (mobilnya, mobil seorang wanita).
Do you think he knows the way to our house? (rumah kita).
Those are your books on the table! (buku kalian).
Their school is located near ours! (sekolah mereka).

Possessive pronouns also describe belongings but they stand there without the nouns. In English, possessive pronouns are mine, yours, his, hers, ours, yours (plural) and theirs.
Here are some examples of the possessive pronouns:

That is my computer. That computer is mine (milikku).
I saw you park your car in the corner over there. Is that car yours over there? (milikmu).
I know he placed his milk in the fridge. That's why I did not take it because I know the milk is his. (milik dia seorang laki-laki).
She's just bought a new car. The shiny car over there, it is hers! (milik dia seorang perempuan).
I love this house. I am going to buy it, soon the house will be ours! (milik kita).
These uniforms, they look like yours! (milik kalian)
I saw a lot of guitars in the hall, perhaps the guitars are theirs. (milik mereka).

Subjective and Objective Pronouns

A subjective pronoun is a pronoun that is used as the subject in a sentence. In English, subjective pronouns are:

I (saya)
You (kamu)
He (dia, laki-laki)
She (dia, perempuan)
We (kami atau kita)
You (kalian)
They (mereka)

For Examples (The subjective pronouns are in blue):

I live in Bandung, Indonesia.
You come from Medan in Sumatra.
He knows what to do.
She has a lot of money.
We will help you if you need us.
You all have to go now.
They are good fellows.

An objective pronoun is a pronoun that is used as an object in a sentence. In English, objective pronouns are:

me (saya)
you (kamu)
him (dia, laki-laki)
her (dia, perempuan)
us (kami)
you (kamu)
them (mereka)

For examples (The objective pronouns are in red whilst the subjective pronouns are in blue):

She knows that she loves me.
I will meet you later in the afternoon.
Do you know her?
Please don't tell him if I want to make a surprise for him.
Who is going to join us in the party?
OK, we will meet you all again tomorrow.
We will never be like them the movie stars you see on TV.

Plural Nouns

In English, to make a plural noun is usually to add 's' or 'es' at the end of the singular noun. For example:

a car - cars
a cow - cows
a window - windows
a PC - PCs
a tomato - tomatoes
a mosquito - mosquitoes
et cetera...

But some nouns need special care if to make their plural forms in that their plural forms don't end with 's' or 'es'.

a child - children
an ox - oxen
a mouse - mice (Beware: if it is the computer device instead of the animal: a mouse - mouses)
a louse - lice
a sheep - sheep
a man - men
a woman - women
a policeman - policemen
a foot - feet
a goose - geese
et cetera...

Some nouns of Latin, Greek and other foreign origins also take special care:

an alumnus - alumni
a radius - radii
a matrix - matrices
a château - châteaux
a fulcrum - fulcra
a cactus - cacti
a stadium - stadia
a formula - formulae
a cello - celli
a paparazzo - paparazzi
et cetera...

Proper Nouns

Proper noun is a specific name given to something or somebody. The easiest way to tell whether a noun is a proper noun or not is that a proper noun ALWAYS begins with a capital letter.

Examples are:

Mars, Indonesia, Harry, Amir, Jakarta, New York, Africa, Hong Kong, etc.

It is easy to identify a proper noun, isn't it? Can you tell 20 other proper nouns you know?

Countable and Uncountable Nouns

Countable nouns or count nouns denote things that can be counted. The examples of countable noun are: a cow, a cat, a house, a car, a rocket, an aeroplane, etc. Count nouns have plural forms. The plural forms of the previous examples are: cows, cats, houses, cars, rockets and aeroplanes.

Uncountable nouns or noncount nouns denote things that cannot be counted. The things may be able to be measured but they cannot be counted. The examples of the noncount nouns are: milk, coffee, tea, sugar, rice, flour, etc. Uncountable nouns do not have plural forms.

Now, as an excercise, can you name five other countable nouns and five other uncountable nouns?

Denifinte and Indefinite Articles

What is a definite article? A definite article is a determiner that restricts or particularises a noun. In English there is only one definite article that is 'the'. 'The' is mostly used when we refer to a thing which is only one and nothing more but one! The examples for the usage of the definite article in this case are: "the sun" (we have only one sun..... you can't find another sun elsewhere in your life!), "the moon", "the earth", etc...

A definite article is also used when we refer to a thing that has already been mentioned before! The following example will explain the usage:
"There is a book on the table"
"Can you give me the book, please?"

A definite article is also used to show the superlative degree of an adjective. Check the following examples:
"They three are smart students but Arif is the smartest amongst the three"
"Amongst the countries in ASEAN, Indonesia is the biggest country by area and by population".

Now, what is an indefinite article? An indefinite article is a determiner that expresses nonspecificity of a noun. There are a lot indefinite articles in English that are "a", "an", and "some" to say three of them. "a" and "an" are used for singular nouns whilst "some" are used for plural nouns. "a" is used for a noun that starts with consonant sounds while "an" is used for a noun that starts with vowel sounds.

The examples for the usage of "a" and "an" are:
"a balloon"
"a cat"
"a car"
"a piano"
"a computer"
"a university" etc...

"an apple"
"an orange"
"an orangutan"
"an umbrella"
"an hour" etc...

The example for the "some" usage is given below in sentences:
"I remember there are some apples in the fridge. If I'm not mistaken there are three of them!"
"There are some students in the class. Maybe there are about ten of them in it!"