Derogatory Agreement

Derogatory agreement is a common grammatical error that is often overlooked but can ultimately impact the clarity and credibility of written content. It occurs when a singular subject is paired with a plural verb or vice versa.

For example, the sentence, “The group of students were studying,” should be revised to, “The group of students was studying.” In this case, “group” is the singular subject that requires a singular verb.

Similarly, the sentence, “Each of the employees have their own cubicles,” should be revised to, “Each of the employees has their own cubicle.” Here, the singular pronoun “each” requires a singular verb.

Derogatory agreement can also occur in more complex sentences, such as those with compound subjects or subject-verb pairs separated by phrases or clauses. In these cases, it is important to identify the true subject and verb to ensure they agree in number.

Correctly utilizing subject-verb agreement not only improves the grammatical structure of a sentence but also enhances its overall readability and impact. Search engines such as Google also recognize the importance of grammatical accuracy in content and may penalize websites with poorly written content.

Therefore, it is important for writers and editors to pay attention to this often overlooked aspect of grammar to produce high-quality and SEO-friendly content.