I have observed that a number of students can't differentiate between plural verbs and singular verbs. Ask them to give you an example of a singular verb and they start guessing. Some of them probably think that only nouns have singular and plural forms. Well, we shall start off from there. Three parts of speech have singular and plural forms:
Nouns;
Pronouns; and
Verbs.
Our focus shall however be on how singular verbs are formed.
Previously we had discussed how plural nouns are formed.
Let's make the following categorically clear:
When 's' (or its variants: es, ies) is added to a noun, the noun becomes plural.
However, when 's' (or its variants: es, ies) is added to a verb, the verb becomes singular.
1. The singular forms of some verbs are formed by the addition of 's' to the plural form.
Plural Singular
sing sing
pray prays
read reads
i. He prays every day.
ii. They pray every day.
iii. The boy and girl pray every day.
iv. Mary sings well.
v. Mary and her sister sing well.
The singular verbs are in bold typeface while the plural verbs are underlined.
2. The singular forms of some verbs are formed by the addition of 'es' to the plural form.
Plural Singular
go goes
push pushes
press presses
i. He goes to school every day.
ii. They go school every day.
iii. That man pushes a cart to collect dirt.
iv. Those men push carts to collect dirt.
3. The singular forms of some verbs are formed by the addition of 'ies' to the plural form.
Plural Singular
cry cries
fry fries
ply plies
i. The baby cries a lot.
ii. The babies cry a lot.
iii. My mom fries chips for sale.
iv. Their moms fry chips for sale.
Thank you for reading. You will have a nice week ahead.
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