17.+Maxine+M

1. When the subject of a sentence is composed of two or more nouns or pronouns connected by and, use a plural verb. She and her friends are at the fair. 2. When two or more singular nouns or pronouns are connected by or or nor, use a singular verb. The book or the pen is in the drawer. 3. When a compound subject contains both a singular and a plural noun or pronoun joined by or or nor, the verb should agree with the part of the subject that is nearer the verb. The boy or his friends run every day. His friends or the boy runs every day. 4. Doesn't is a contraction of does not and should be used only with a singular subject. Don't is a contraction of do not and should be used only with a plural subject. The exception to this rule appears in the case of the first person and second person pronouns I and you. With these pronouns, the contraction don't should be used. He doesn't like it. They don't like it. 5. Do not be misled by a phrase that comes between the subject and the verb. The verb agrees with the subject, not with a noun or pronoun in the phrase. One of the boxes is open The people who listen to that music are few. The team captain, as well as his players, is anxious. The book, including all the chapters in the first section, is boring. The woman with all the dogs walks down my street.

Maxine Maeva notes:

Using periods (and other forms of punctuation) and knowing when to end a sentence are very important. If you don't end a sentence appropriately, the intended meaning can be changed, or it can be misunderstood. Sometimes the meaning is simply incomprehensible. When a person learns to write English sentences and compositions, one common problem is writing sentences that are too long. When a sentence ends too quickly, it is called a [| sentence fragment]. When a sentence has too many ideas and runs on too long, it is called a **run-on sentence**. If you have this problem, don't worry. It is quite easy to fix. The first thing you need to do is identify when a sentence is a run-on. A run-on (or run-on sentence) is a sentence that really has TWO sentences (or complete ideas) INCORRECTLY combined into one. It is okay to combine two sentences into one, but you must follow some rules. You might be wondering: "What is a sentence?" A sentence consists of 3 things:
 * **1** ||   **subject**   ||   **the person, place, or thing performing or doing the action**   ||
 * **2** ||   **verb**   ||   **the action**   ||
 * **3** ||   **complete idea**   ||  **the reader isn't left waiting for another word**  ||