The Road of My Happy Crazy Life

Studying the Rules of Subject Verb Agreement

mhayn — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:42:51 +0000

I hope to share this post to all my students in English. Hope this will be a good reference to you all.

RULES ON
SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT

Rule 1: Basic Principle - Singular subjects need singular verbs; plural subjects need plural verbs.

My brother is a nutritionist. My sisters are mathematicians.

Rule 2: The indefinite pronouns anyone, everyone, someone, no one, nobody are always singular and, therefore, require sigular verbs.

Everyone has done his or her homework.
Somebody has left her purse.

Rule 3 : Some indefinite pronouns — such as all, some — are singular or plural depending on what they’re referring to. (Is the thing referred to countable or not?) Be careful choosing a verb to accompany such pronouns.

Some of the beads are missing.
Some of the water is gone.

Rule 4 : On the other hand, there is one indefinite pronoun, none, that can be either singular or plural; it often doesn’t matter whether you use a singular or a plural verb — unless something else in the sentence determines its number.

None of you claims responsibility for this incident?
None of you claim responsibility for this incident?
None of the students have done their homework.

The mayor as well as his brothers is going to prison.
The mayor and his brothers are going to jail.

Rule 5 : Phrases such as together with, as well as, and along with are not the same as and. The phrase introduced by as well as or along with will modify the earlier word (mayor in this case), but it does not compound the subjects (as the word and would do).

Rule 6 : The pronouns neither and either are singular and require singular verbs even though they seem to be referring, in a sense, to two things.

Neither of the two traffic lights is working.
Which shirt do you want for Christmas?
Either is fine with me.

Rule 7 : In informal writing, neither and either sometimes take a plural verb when these pronouns are followed by a prepositional phrase beginning with of. This is particularly true of interrogative constructions

Have either of you two clowns read the assignment?
Are either of you taking this seriously?

Rule 8 : The conjunction or does not conjoin (as and does). When nor or or is used the subject closer to the verb determines the number of the verb.

Either my father or my brothers are going to sell the house.
Neither my brothers nor my father is going to sell the house.
Are either my brothers or my father responsible?
Is either my father or my brothers responsible?

Rule 9 : The words there and here are never subjects.

There are two reasons [plural subject] for this.
There is no reason for this.
Here are two apples.

Rule 10 : Verbs in the present tense for third-person, singular subjects (he, she, it and anything those words can stand for) have s-endings. Other verbs do not add s-endings.

He loves and she loves and they love_ and . . . .

Rule 11 : Sometimes modifiers will get between a subject and its verb, but these modifiers must not confuse the agreement between the subject and its verb.

The mayor, who has been convicted along with his four brothers on four counts of various crimes but who also seems, like a cat, to have several political lives, is finally going to jail.

Rule 12 : Words such as glasses, pants, pliers, and scissors are regarded as plural (and require plural verbs) unless they’re preceded by the phrase pair of (in which case the word pair becomes the subject).

My glasses were on the bed.
My pants were torn.
A pair of plaid trousers is in the closet.

Rule 13 : Some words end in -s and appear to be plural but are really singular and require singular verbs.

The news from the front is bad.
Measles is a dangerous disease for pregnant women.

Rule 14 : On the other hand, some words ending in -s refer to a single thing but are nonetheless plural and require a plural verb.

My assets were wiped out in the depression.
The average worker’s earnings have gone up dramatically.
Our thanks go to the workers who supported the union.

Rule 15 : Fractional expressions such as half of, a part of, a percentage of, a majority of are sometimes singular and sometimes plural, depending on the meaning.

A large percentage of the older population is voting against her.
Two-fifths of the troops were lost in the battle.
Two-fifths of the vineyard was destroyed by fire.
Forty percent of the students are in favor of changing the policy.
Forty percent of the student body is in favor of changing the policy

Rule 16 : Sums and products of mathematical processes are expressed as singular and require singular verbs. The expression "more than one" (oddly enough) takes a singular verb.

More than one student has tried this.
Two and two is four.
Four times four divided by two is eight.

Rule 17 : If your sentence compounds a positive and a negative subject and one is plural, the other singular, the verb should agree with the positive subject.

The department members but not the chair have decided not to teach on Valentine’s Day.
It is not the faculty members but the president who decides this issue.
It was the speaker, not his ideas, that has provoked the students to riot.

Is play necessary for development?

mhayn — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:50:57 +0000

Absolutely. Play is crucial for your child’s social, emotional, physical, and cognitive growth. It’s your child’s way of learning about his body and the world, and he’ll use all five senses to do it, especially in the first year. What does this feel like when I touch it? What does this sound like when I squeeze it? What will happen if I push this or pull that? Crawl over there? Pull myself up on this? Exploration is the heart of play, and in your child’s mind any experiment counts, even hurling a bowl of cereal off the highchair tray. Development experts are fond of saying that play is the work of children (and cleaning up after play seems to be the work of parents).

As your child moves into the toddler years, his play will become more imaginative and complex. Through play, he’ll exercise key skills and qualities, such as independence, creativity, curiosity, and problem-solving. It can also be an important place to explore feelings and values and develop social skills. Long before your child feels comfortable sharing his favorite toy with his sister, he may offer it to a doll. His first spontaneous “please” and “thank you” may slip out at an imaginary tea party. And what parent can resist wasting a perfectly good bandage the first time her child says his teddy got hurt?

the difference between fake friends and real friends

mhayn — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:00:48 +0000

FAKE FRIENDS: Never ask for food.
REAL FRIENDS: are the reason you have no food.
FAKE FRIENDS: Call your parents Mr/Mrs
REAL FRIENDS: Call your parents DAD/MOM
FAKE FRIENDS: never seen you cry.
REAL FRIENDS: cry with you
FAKE FRIENDS: Borrow your stuff for a few days then
give it back.
REAL FRIENDS: keep your shirt so long they forget its yours.
FAKE FRIENDS: know a few things about you.
REAL FRIENDS: Could write a book about you with direct quotes from you.
FAKE FRIENDS: Will leave you behind if that is what the crowd is doing.
REAL FRIENDS: Will kick the whole crowds that left you.
FAKE FRIENDS: Would knock on your front door.
REAL FRIENDS: Walk right in and say "I’M HOME!"
FAKE FRIENDS: Are for a while.
REAL FRIENDS: Are for life.

That’s NOT my JOB!!!

mhayn — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 10:53:50 +0000

That’s Not My Job This is a story told about four people named, Somebody, Everybody, Anybody and Nobody. There was one important job to be done. Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about it because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it. Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

ONE DOOR CLOSES ANOTHER ONE OPENS

mhayn — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 10:23:25 +0000

Revelations 3:8

When God leads you to the edge of the cliff, trust Him fully and let go, only 1 of 2 things will happen, either He’ll catch you when you fall, or He’ll teach you how to fly! ‘The power of one sentence! God is going to shift things around for you today and let things work in your favor. God closes doors no man can open & God opens doors no man can close. If you need God to open, some doors for you…send this to ten people. Have a blessed day and remember to be a blessing…

sent to me today from kuya elmer..just wanted to share this to all… . i miss the DCC…

year of responsibility

mhayn — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 09:39:41 +0000

i got this article from one of the analysis signs. please check this out for what the year of the ox may take us…

We will feel the yoke of responsibility coming down on us this year. No success can be achieved without conscientious efforts. The trials and tribulations the Ox year brings will be mainly on the home front. It is a good time to settle domestic affairs and put your house in order.

Way-out fashions, abstract art forms and newfangled notions will be given an impassive stare by the phlegmatic Ox, while politics and diplomacy will simply be treated with indifference. Better stick to routine and support conservative policies. Frivolities are out!

This year will no doubt bear fruit, but the motto is: "No work, no pay!" Time waits for no man; if we are too lazy to sow then we can blame no one if we have nothing to reap. We will find a great many things requiring our attention, and the list of what needs to be done will seem endless. The Spartan influence of the Ox will be a constantly cracking whip over our heads. Better to apply oneself diligently than waste time arguing with the authorities. They will prevail, as the year of the Ox favors discipline.

Most conflicts this year will arise more from a lack of communication and refusal to give in on small technicalities than anything else. But hang on and be patient. Everything will be sorted out and we will be rewarded for our efforts–so long as we remember to do things the conventional way. This is no time for tricky shortcuts.

For the rebels, it may be worthwhile to point out that although the stoical Ox is soft-spoken, he carries a big stick, and this is his year.

Kung Hei Fat Choi! (Happy New Year!)

mhayn — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 09:37:51 +0000

The Chinese calendar is based on solar and lunar cycles and thus the new year falls on a different day of the Western solar calendar each year. Year Ahead: The OX year is a conservative year, one of traditions and values. This is not a year to be outrageous. A slow but steady year. This OX year will bring stability and growth where patience and diligence pays off. This is a year of Harvest - when we reap what we have sown. Take care of business this year, do not let things slide. People Born in the Year of the OX: Characteristics: People Born in the Year of the OX are stable, strong, dutiful, reliable, tenacious, practical, industrious, determined, honest, loyal, sincere, persevering and down to earth and tolerant. They can sometimes be lonely but they form firm bonds with home and family. The OX people cherish their private lives and are not usually very adventurous. They can be loners. They know the way to succeed is by a slow, steady, sustained effort. OX people are great traditionalists, they like the familiar.

art the anti depressant

mhayn — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:55:13 +0000

All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me. You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you. Life is no brief candle. It is a sort of splendid torch which is permitted to hold for the moment, and wanted to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

You can find an outlet for your depression that allows your heart to heal and your mind to clear by transforming your feelings into a tangible expression through art. In this thought, people can be artist in many ways whether it be by writing, painting or by transferring your sadness and lowliness to musical rhythms and songs. These creative tensions would release the melancholy in your life through these mediums. Based on my experience, I have written an unpublished novel entitled “What Makes Him”. Honestly, I wrote it because of an assignment on my school years. It was a novel reflecting my life and the life of my father.

It is my confirmed belief that we are on this earth to evolve our souls. We are spiritual beings who have taken on flesh and blood to experience that which could not be earned in the higher realms of Spirit.

baby uno

mhayn — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:34:23 +0000

"A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for"

The 11 Search Engine Optimization

mhayn — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:14:20 +0000

When it comes to search engine optimization, there are certain common mistakes that I

see people making over and over again.

Here’s a list of the 11 most common mistakes that I see people making. By avoiding

these mistakes, you can avoid a lot of anguish and frustration in the long run.

1) Optimizing for the wrong keywords

The first step in any search engine optimization campaign is to choose the keywords

you should optimize your site with. If you initially choose the wrong keywords, all the

time and effort that you devote in trying to get your site a high ranking will go down the

drain.

If you choose keywords which no one search for, or if you choose keywords which won’t

bring in targeted traffic to your site, what good will the top rankings do?

2) Putting too many keywords in the Meta Keywords tag

I often see sites that have hundreds of keywords listed in the Meta Keywords tag, in the

hope that by listing the keywords in the Meta Keywords tag, they will be able to get a

high ranking for those keywords. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Contrary to popular opinion, the Meta Keywords tag has almost completely lost its

importance as far as search engine positioning is concerned. Hence, just by listing

keywords in the Meta Keywords tag, you will never be able to get a high ranking.

To get a high ranking for those keywords, you need to put the keywords in the actual

body content of your site.

3) Repeating the same keyword too many times

Another common mistake that people make is to endlessly repeat their target keywords

in the body of their pages and in their Meta Keywords tags.

Because so many people have used this tactic in the past (and continue to use it), the

search engines keep a sharp lookout for this, and may penalize a site which repeats

keywords in this fashion.

Sure, you do need to repeat the keywords a number of times. But, the way you place

the keywords in your pages needs to make grammatical sense. Simply repeating the

keywords endlessly no longer works. Furthermore, a particular keyword should ideally

not be present more than thrice in your Meta Keywords tag.

4) Creating lots of similar doorway pages

Another myth prevalent among people is that since the algorithm of each search engine

is different, they need to create different pages for different search engines.

While this is great in theory, it is counter-productive in practice.

If you use this tactic, you will soon end up with hundreds of pages, which can quickly

become an administrative nightmare. Also, just imagine the amount of time you will

need to spend constantly updating the pages in response to the changes that the

search engines make to their algorithms. Furthermore, although the pages are meant

for different engines, they will actually end up being pretty similar to each other.

The search engines are often able to detect when a site has created such similar pages,

and may penalize or even ban this site from their index. Hence, instead of creating

different pages for different search engines, create one page which is optimized for one

keyword for all the search engines.

5) Using Hidden Text

Hidden text is text with the same color as the background color of your page. For

example, if the background color of your page is white and you have added some white

text to that page, that is considered as hidden text.

Many webmasters, in order to get high rankings in the search engines, try to make their

pages as keyword rich as possible.

However, there is a limit to the number of keywords you can repeat in a page without

making it sound odd to your human visitors. Thus, in order to ensure that the human

visitors to a page don’t perceive the text to be odd, but that the page is still keyword rich,

many webmasters add text (containing the keywords) with the same color as the background color. This ensures that while the search engines can see the keywords,

the human visitors cannot.

The search engines have long since caught up with this technique, and ignore or

penalize the pages which contain such text. They may also penalize the entire site if

even one of the pages in that site contain such hidden text.

However, the problem with this is that the search engines may often end up penalizing

sites which did not intend to use hidden text.

For instance, suppose you have a page with a white background and a table in that

page with a black background.

Further suppose that you have added some white text in that table. This text will, in fact,

be visible to your human visitors, i.e. this shouldn’t be called hidden text. However, the

search engines can interpret this to be hidden text because they may often ignore the

fact that the background of the table is black.

Hence, in order to ensure that your site is not penalized because of this, you should go

through all the pages in your site and see whether you have inadvertently made any

such mistake.

6) Creating Pages Containing Only Graphics

The search engines only understand text - they don’t understand graphics. Hence, if

your site contains lots of graphics but little text, it is unlikely to get a high ranking in the

search engines.

For improving your rankings, you need to replace the graphics by keyword rich text for

the search engine spiders to feed on.

7) Not using the NOFRAMES tag in case your site uses frames

Many search engines don’t understand frames.

For sites which have used frames, these search engines only consider what is present

in the NOFRAMES tag. Yet, many webmasters make the mistake of adding something

like this to the NOFRAMES tag: "This site uses frames, but your browser doesn’t

support them".

For the search engines which don’t understand frames, this is all the text that they ever

get to see in this site, which means that the chances of this site getting a good ranking

in these search engines are non-existent. Hence, if your site uses frames, you need to

add a lot of keyword rich text to the NOFRAMES tag.

8) Using Page Cloaking

Page cloaking is a technique used to deliver different web pages under different

circumstances.

People generally use page cloaking for two reasons: i) in order to hide the source code

of their search engine optimized pages from their competitors and ii) in order to prevent

human visitors from having to see a page which looks good to the search engines but

does not necessarily look good to humans.

The problem with this is that when a site uses cloaking, it prevents the search engines

from being able to spider the same page that their users are going to see. And if the

search engines can’t do this, they can no longer be confident of providing relevant

results to their users. Thus, if a search engine discovers that a site has used cloaking, it

will probably ban the site forever from their index.

Hence, my advice is that you should not even think about using cloaking in your site.

9) Using Automatic Submission Tools

In order to save time, many people use an automatic submission software or service to

submit their sites to the major search engines.

It is true that submitting your site manually to the search engines takes a lot of time and

that an automatic submission tool can help you save a lot of time. However, the search

engines don’t like automatic submission tools and may ignore your pages if you use

them.

In my opinion, the major search engines are simply too important for you not to spend

the time to submit your site manually to them.

10) Submitting too many pages per day

People often make the mistake of submitting too many pages per day to the search

engines.

This often results in the search engines simply ignoring many of the pages which have

been submitted from that site. Ideally, you should submit no more than 1 page per day

to the search engines.

While many search engines accept more than 1 page per day from a particular domain,

there are some which only accept 1 page per day.

Hence, by limiting yourself to a maximum of one page per day, you ensure that you stay

within the limits of all the search engines.

11) Devoting too much time to search engine positioning

There’s another common mistake that people make when it comes to search engine

optimization - they spend too much time over it.

Sure, search engine placement is the most cost effective way of driving traffic to your

site and you do need to spend some time every day learning how the search engines

work and in optimizing your site for the search engines. However, you must remember

that search engine optimization is a means to an end for you - it’s not the end in itself.

The end is to increase the sales of your products and services. Hence, apart from trying

to improve your site’s position in the search engines, you also need to spend time on all

the other factors which determine the success or the failure of your web site - the quality

of the products and services that you are selling, the quality of your customer service,

and so on.

You may have excellent rankings in the search engines, but if the quality of your products and

services are poor, or if your customer service leaves a lot to be desired, those high rankings

aren’t going to do much good

By Dan Jeffreys, Creator of “90-Day Affiliate Millionaire”

http://www.90-dayaffiliatemillionaire.com/ebook_downloads/11_SEO_Mistakes.pdf