Students have learned that when building sentences with bound predicates, there needs to be subject-predicate agreement just like when building sentences with action predicate words.
- Most bound predicate words can be singular or plural.
Ex. Tom had a good time. Tom and Jack had a good time. - There are four bound predicate words that can only be singular: am, was, is, has
Ex. I am Tom's friend. - Three bound predicate words are only plural: are, were, have (Exception- "have" can be singular with personal pronouns I and you
Ex. Tom and Jack are athletes. - Usually matching subject-predicate agreement with bound predicates happens very naturally. However, it can be tricky whe a set-apart or interrupter comes between the subject and predicate.
Ex. The field of oats was harvested at dawn.
I like using the bound predicates! It is fun because if you have a bound predicate then you have to finish the sentence. Because if I said the boy had, you would have to finish the sentence because it would not make sense if you did not finish the sentence!
ReplyDeleteI like bound predicates because it is easy!
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