http://www.englishforums.com/English/GeneralEnglishGrammarQuestions/Forum12.htmAsk your questions on grammar and get your sentence checked. We answer lots of different types of general English grammar questions here.enCSMOD (Build: 3273.32735)http://www.englishforums.com/English/AnybodyNobodySomeone/gjxhh/post.htm#549515Fri, 01 Aug 2008 07:16:44 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:549515Avangi0http://www.englishforums.com/English/AnybodyNobodySomeone/gjxhh/post.htm#549515http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-549515.xmlThe key is the verb &quot;to make&quot; in this case.&nbsp; It&#39;s followed by the bare infinitive&nbsp; -&nbsp;&nbsp; to make [to] agree to do<br /><br />If instead of &quot;make&quot; you use &quot;force,&quot; which is followed by the <span style="TEXT-DECORATION:underline;">complete</span> infinitive, you can better see how the form works.<br /><br /><em>Someone tries to force someone to agree to do something.</em>&nbsp; There are three &quot;complete&quot; infinitives in this sentence.&nbsp; The only simple present verb is &quot;tries,&quot; which follows your rule.&nbsp; Infinitives don&#39;t change from singular to plural.<br /><br />Furthermore, the second&nbsp;&quot;someone&quot; is the direct object of &quot;force,&quot; rather than a subject, and therefore is not required to agree with the verb.<br />The same thing is true of &quot;someone&quot; in the definition you have quoted from the dictionary.<br /><br />Another example which follows your rule would be: <em>Unless <span style="TEXT-DECORATION:underline;">someone agrees</span> to pay for this meal, we&#39;ll all have to wash dishes.</em>&nbsp; Here, &quot;someone&quot; is the subject of the clause, and the verb is singular, to agree.<br /><br />I know I didn&#39;t approach you question from the right end.&nbsp; If your dictionary quote were something like, &quot;in the movie, someone agrees to do something terrible,&quot;&nbsp; &quot;someone&quot; would be the subject of the sentence and would follow your rule.&nbsp; But&nbsp;in your example, it is <strong><em><span style="TEXT-DECORATION:underline;">not</span></em></strong> the subject.<br /><br />&nbsp; - A.<br /><br />Edit.&nbsp; I hope you can follow this mess.&nbsp; I should have scrapped it and started over, but I have to go to work!&nbsp; Sorry.<div style="clear:both;"></div>http://www.englishforums.com/English/AnybodyNobodySomeone/gjxgx/post.htmFri, 01 Aug 2008 05:42:02 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:549505Evo251http://www.englishforums.com/English/AnybodyNobodySomeone/gjxgx/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-549505.xmlit is after the the word such as anybody,nobody and someone,the verb work is&nbsp;appear in singular context?<br />so,it should follow by adding &#39;s&#39; in the verb word &nbsp;that is used.<br /><strong>nobody/someone/anybody </strong>corrects you..<br />but while i look at the dictionary..it makes me feel confused about it.<br />The main meaning of persuade is to make someone <strong>agree</strong> to do something by giving good reasons for dong it.<br />the word agree above is appear in singular context...<br />so,after the word of someone,the verb word need to add &#39;s&#39; or otherwise?<br />thanks..<br /><br /><div style="clear:both;"></div>