<p>I was reading sparknotes seven deadly screw-ups for the sentence completion section.</p>
<p>Then it hit me that Sparknotes says that “Sit” is the plural verb, and “sits” is a singular verb.</p>
<p>My mind is blown, can someone help me?</p>
<p>This was the section:</p>
<p>
[SAT:</a> Improve SAT Score with SparkNotes: The Seven Deadly Screw-Ups](<a href=“SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides”>SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides)</p>
<p>gotta ask my dogs if they sits . . .</p>
<p>Yes, I see that “sit” is proper for plural subjects. But it was pretty unusual that “sit” is plural because it doesn’t have the plural “s” on it. Similar to people, but their is no way to tell that sit is plural because people usually consists of many persons. </p>
<p>However, i see the mistake through the ear. Thanks for the help though.</p>
<p>@nothingto:</p>
<p>I try to help you with your general grammar question. However, the example you gave sounds really awkward to me (I am a foreigner though).</p>
<p>We are dealing with verbs and not with nouns.
Plural nouns indeed end with an s.
examples:
dog (singular) -> dogs (plural)
house (singular) -> houses (plural)</p>
<p>There are exceptions though, such as people (plural).</p>
<p>It is a different story regarding verbs in the simple present tense.</p>
<p>When the verb of a sentence in the simple present tense refers to the third person (singular) then the verb ends with an s.</p>
<p>Examples:
He walks to work everyday.
The car accelerates.
The man sits in the corner.
David often goes to the cinema.</p>
<p>In contrast to that, if you refer to a group of people there is no -s used:
My friends walk to work everyday.
The cars accelerate.
The men sit in the corner.
David and Anne often go to the cinema on sundays.</p>
<p>In the problem you stated above, “sits” would refer to a singular subject.
However, the solution said that “sits” should refer to the plural subject “two maraschino cherries”. Therefore, “sits” should be changed to “sit” in order to avoid a verb-noun-agreement error.</p>
<p>I hope that helped a little bit.
Maybe there is somebody who might explain your example question more in detail.
I think it is worded really awkwardly.</p>
<p>Thanks for your help! I never knew verbs were different from nouns in the case of plural “s”. It helped quite alot, thanks you.</p>
<p>Are you a novice or something?</p>
<p>Grammar novice. I scored consistently well on Math/Reading, however writing has always been my weak section (scoring around 500-600). Im trying to focus on grammar and such. I really never been the one to care about grammar much.</p>
<p>Ahhhh… I see.</p>
<p>Clearly by both of those threads I made… lol</p>
<p>If you’re ever stuck, change the nouns to pronouns. </p>
<p>“two maraschino cherries sit…” or “two maraschino cherries sits…”</p>
<p>“they sit…” or “they sits…”</p>
<p>Lol. No, it’s my first language. I use correct verb singulars/plurals when I speak, however I never really noticed that verbs are plural when they’re not with a s. As I have said, writing/grammar was never my strong point, and I am trying to improve on that.</p>
<p>However, I am a immigrant, but knew english for about 80% of my life, so it’s my first language.</p>
<p>Grammar is more tricky for native speakers than non-native. </p>
<p>Non-native speakers are taught “proper English”. But native speakers don’t speak that way. And we are only taught that way in early grades. Then the SAT and ACT come up and we have no clue what the right answer is when we are down to two similar choices.</p>
<p>EDIT: it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been speaking it. If you weren’t taught English FIRST, then it’s not your first language.</p>
<p>^Yes, that is exactly what happened to me. I was never taught proper english when I was in Kindergarten to even High School now. So I have to really improve on the writing section. I am surprised my High School never really touched upon these subjects other then the general nouns, pronouns, adjectives etc.</p>
<p>I knew english since I was in kindergarten, so even though I am Bengali, english was my native language.</p>
<p>Let’s be even more precise - while it is true that ‘sits’ is singular, it isn’t the only singular form of the verb. ‘Sit’ can also be singular.</p>
<p>I sit
You (singular) sit
He/she/it sits
We sit
You (plural) sit
They sit</p>
<p>And verbs aren’t “singular” in the same way that nouns are. They have singular/plural <em>endings</em> that modify the noun in number, case, and gender.</p>
<p>Its one of those things that actually follow if it “sounds right” rule.</p>
<p>By the way, a good mnemonic for the -s ending in simple present is:</p>
<p>He, she, it - no -s is s h i t! ;)</p>