Agreement in grammar
The various parts of what you are saying should agree with each other, in a grammatical sense. You may be aware that in foreign languages words should agree with each other in up to three areas, at least in European languages: number, gender and case. In English, we have very little use of case, and our nouns by and large are not marked for gender. Problems of agreement are therefore quite limited.
The idea that different words used in the same sentence, or other grammatical construction, should agree - or 'be in agreement with' each other - is a fundamental concept in grammar. This is also called concord. Some measure of agreement is necessary, but different words should agree in different ways. In English, the following are common areas where errors of agreement occur:
- the Subject and Verb of a sentence should agree in number (see agreement of subject and verb)
- nouns and the pronouns that refer to them should agree in gender and number (see agreement of gender)
- nouns and pronouns should be in the appropriate case for the function they are performing in the sentence (see agreement of case and agreement of preposition with pronoun).
See also agreement for other meanings of the word.
