Practice 6: subject-verb agreement
read this passage. underline the subject and verb in each sentence. see if the subject and
verb agree. if they do, write a c above the verb: if not, revise the verb.
the popularity of various baby names have really changed over the last century. each
decade seems to have its "top ten." some names, however, was popular for many years. one
example is the girl's name mary: it was number one for many of the years between 1890 and
1969! the boy's name michael has been first or second for most of the past 30 years!
back in the 1970s and '80s, the number one girl's name was jennifer. for boys jason and
david was favored, followed by matthew and james. if you know anyone born in the '50s or
'60s, you might run across women called susan, patricia, karen, deborah, and donna, and men
named james, john, robert, and william.
over the last ten years, the most popular names for girls has been emily, madison, hannah,
ashley, jessica, and sarah. many of these are spelled in diverse ways. you may have met a
sara, an emilie, or a hana. top names for boys includes michael, jacob, christopher, nicolas,
joshua, and andrew. they do not seem to have the variety of feminine spellings, but they often
have many nicknames. when one looks at the list above, it could says mike, jake, chris, nick,
josh, and andy-or drew!
what fun it is to look back at the names people chose for their babies during different eras
and we haven't even mentioned what influenced those choices, like the movie stars or sports
celebrities of the day. for real fun, one can tries to predict which names will be hot next year!