Concord errors in written production of Swedish learners of English

Abstract

This study has examined and discussed previous research about subject-verb concord and also examined the phenomena with help of essays and assignments written by students and teachers from the University of Gothenburg. The study found that even though Sweden has an easy access to English and Swedes easily develop their command of English, Swedes have problems with subject-verb concord. There are several reasons which create problems for Swedish learners of English with concord, and the problems may be connected to inter- or intralingual factors. Swedish and its grammar rules, as their mother tongue may affect Swedes’ command of English in a negative way and since Swedish does not longer have subject-verb concord it creates further problems with the command in concord in another language than one’s own native language.