High School

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Identify the error in the sentence: "John’s ability to laugh at almost anything amaze me."

A. Incorrect spelling of "amaze" (John’s ability to laugh at almost anything amaize me.)
B. Subject/verb agreement issue (John’s ability... amazes me.)
C. Inconsistent verb tense (John’s ability to laugh at almost anything have amazed me.)

Answer :

The correct sentence structure requires subject/verb agreement, so 'John's ability
... amazes me' is the correct form. Infinitives like 'to laugh' do not change to match the subject and cannot be main verbs.

The correct form for the sentence in question is B. subject/verb agreement (John's ability
... amazes). This correction is needed because the subject 'John's ability' is singular. Therefore, the correct verb form to use is 'amazes', which is the third person singular present of the verb 'to amaze' to match the singular subject. Infinitive forms of verbs, such as 'to laugh', are used in various ways within a sentence, but they do not change to agree with the subject as main verbs do.

As mentioned in Chapter 14, an infinitive verb is the present form of the verb preceded by the particle 'to': to laugh, to be, to seem, to break, etc. These infinitives can function nominally (as nouns), adjectivally (as adjectives), or adverbially (as adverbs), but they do not serve as the main verb where subject-verb agreement is concerned.

Subject-verb agreement is crucial for creating grammatically correct sentences. For example, in the sentence 'John laughs at me, of course,' 'laughs' is the third person singular present form of the verb 'to laugh' to match the singular subject 'John'. Infinitives also do not serve as auxiliary verbs, which help show tense and voice but do not have subject-verb agreement. The infinitive here, 'to laugh', is used as an object of the preposition 'ability to', describing what John has the ability to do.

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