Task 1. Determine the functional and stylistic affiliation of the text, indicating its lexical, phraseological and grammatical features

Dear Sirs!

We are confirming receipt of the draft contract drawn up by you for the supply of iron ore to us. We are pleased to note that almost all clauses of the contract are drawn up taking into account the agreement reached during the negotiations that took place in London. Therefore, in general, we approve of the draft contract you have drawn up, however, we would like to discuss the points regarding the terms of delivery and terms of payment.

As you remember, at the conclusion of the contract, we agreed with you on the delivery date - the 1st quarter of the current year. However, due to the fact that the commissioning of the plant scheduled for February will be carried out ahead of schedule, in January, we need the equipment urgently, and we agree to deliver the cargo not by rail, but by air.

With regard to the terms of payment, we object to paragraph 6 of your project, which provides for an advance payment in the amount of 50% of the value of the goods to be shipped, because. such a method of payment is contrary to our long-established practice.

We offer the following terms of payment: 20% of the total contract value must be paid within 30 days after the signing of the contract, and 70% is paid in cash against documents: the remaining 10% is transferred to the State Bank after an analysis is made at the port of destination, and the results will show full compliance of the ore with the specification.

In view of the foregoing, please amend paragraphs 4 and 6 of your draft contract accordingly and send us the contract for signing as soon as possible.

Sincerely. Voronov A.P. director of the company A / O "Intertrade"

This text belongs to the official business style.

Official business style is the language of documents, official papers and business meetings. As we can see, the above text is a business letter.

The characteristic features of this style are:

• - functioning predominantly in writing (writing)
• - use for the transfer of highly specialized information (in this case, the delivery of goods and its payment);
• - conciseness and compactness of presentation;
• - accuracy and completeness of formulations;
• - the absence of the author's speech individuality, which is allowed in certain types of business letters, in diplomatic correspondence, in oral negotiations (in this text, although it comes from the director of the company, his speech features in the style of writing do not appear);
• - maximum economy of expressive language means.

The official business style has lexical, grammatical and syntactic features:

• - the presence of clericalism - specific words and expressions that are characteristic only for the official business style (planned according to the plan, the above, subject to agreement);
• - the use of various standard speech turns, clichéd expressions (must be paid, we approve the draft contract, commissioning, etc.);
• - the use of stylistically neutral vocabulary, while emotional negatively colored vocabulary (colloquial, slang, colloquial) is excluded;
• - descriptive verb-nominal phrases instead of verbs (we approve the project, make an offer);
• - the use of prepositional constructions and complex conjunctions (in force, in connection);
• - the use of a passive collateral structure instead of an active one (we have agreed with you; We offer the following payment terms);
• - wide use of verbal nouns;
• - complete absence of figures of speech;
• - narrative nature of the presentation using nominative sentences;
• - construction of a complex sentence, reflecting the logical connection of facts and the subordination of some facts to others.

Task 2. Eliminate the erroneous semantic connection of words

• 1. The cause for which they are fighting cannot fail to win, having such defenders, truth cannot fail to triumph. - The cause, having such defenders, for which they are fighting, cannot but win, and cannot but triumph, really.
• 2. Both merchants settled in the mansions of ruined nobles, delivered from Europe in disassembled form. - Both merchants settled in mansions delivered from Europe in disassembled form, ruined nobles.
• 3. In the construction of scientific knowledge, the data of experience play an initial and leading role. The merit of empiricism should be considered that it put forward experience as a source of knowledge, but misunderstood experience itself and absolutized its meaning, ignoring the presence of another source of knowledge. - In the construction of scientific knowledge, the data of experience play an initial and leading role. The merit of empiricism should be considered that experience was put forward as a source of knowledge, but experience itself was misunderstood, and its value was absolutized, ignoring the presence of another source of knowledge.
• 4. Employees of the criminal investigation department arrived at the scene of the incident with dogs that were called to detain the criminals. - Employees of the criminal investigation department, who were called to detain criminals, arrived at the scene with dogs
• 5. . A group of soldiers in protective caps appeared from the forest, shouting something. - A group of soldiers appeared from the forest in protective caps, shouting something.

Task 3. Make a synonymous replacement of neologisms and borrowed words

• 1. She showed elementary thinking. - She showed the techniques of thinking.
• 2. The report stated the facts of direct violations of the regulations for the work of pharmacies. - The report established facts of direct violations of the established procedure for the work of pharmacies.
• 3. When characterizing the role of certain types of art in the life of society, one cannot ignore their specific features. - Describing the role of certain types of art in the life of society, it is impossible not to pay attention to their features.
• 4. An identical decision was made by the students of the second group. - A similar decision was made by the students of the second group.
• 5. Passengers rested in comfortable sun loungers on the deck of a comfortable liner. - Passengers rested in comfortable chairs on the deck of a cozy liner.
• 6. The cardinal point of disagreement between the participants in the discussion was brought to naught by means of a compromise. - The main point of disagreement between the participants in the discussion was brought to naught by agreement.

Task 4. Correct errors caused by mixing paronyms

• 1. Some kind of romantic stories constantly pass (happen) with the hero of the film.
• 2. The statute (status) of a new organization uniting nature lovers has been approved.
• 3. The final stage of the analysis is the determination of resourcefulness (turnover) and the effectiveness of operations.
• 4. The analysis of the financial position of the association for export operations is carried out on the basis of accounting data (reporting).
• 5. It is necessary to tactically (tactfully) hint to him that he should not make such important decisions himself.
• 6. The service at first yielded (was given) not easily.
• 7. Most students could answer the question given (asked) by the teacher.
• 8. An excess of trace elements in the soil leads to an increase in the fertility (fruiting) of crops.

Task 5. Match the words

Reproach (inaction) - reproach for inactivity;

scold (carelessness) - scold for carelessness;

thanks to (help) - thanks to help;

according to (prescription) - according to the prescription;

superiority (opponent) - the superiority of the enemy;

full (cheerfulness) - full of vivacity;

to be amazed (error) - to be amazed at the error;

touch (this side of the work) - touch this side of the work;

resent (illiteracy) - resent illiteracy.

Task 6. Match the predicate with the subject

• 1. (Work) twenty-odd people. - More than twenty people worked.
• 2. Attention of sightseers (attract) table-poster. - The table-poster attracted the attention of the tourists.
• 3. Deepening and development of contradictions between countries repeatedly (cause) military conflicts. - The deepening and development of contradictions between countries has repeatedly caused military conflicts.
• four. . Over 720 bridges and tunnels have already (worked out) their term. - Over 720 bridges and tunnels have already served their time.
• 5. One of the delegates (ask) for the floor. - One of the delegates asked to speak.
• 6. Many children (be sick) with the flu. - Many children were sick with the flu.
• 7. The language of Rome, Latin, which served both the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church, (continued to be) the common language of Western learning until the Renaissance. - The language of Rome, Latin, which served both the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church, continued to be the common language of Western scholarship until the Renaissance.
• 8. Most of the workers, engineers, employees of our factory (pass) qualification certification. - Most of the workers, engineers, employees of our plant have passed qualification certification.
• 9. Most of the students of the school (to be sent) for the summer to a health camp. - Most of the students of the school were sent to a health camp for the summer.
• 10. Six months (fly) unnoticed. - Half a year flew by unnoticed.

Task 7. Write numerals in words, agree nouns with them

• 1. Compared to 1146 (orthographically difficult words) included in the collection of dictations, the rest seem easy. - Compared with one thousand one hundred and forty-six difficult spelling words included in the collection of dictations, the rest seem easy.
• 2. . We covered these 17 (kilometers) in 4.5 (hours). - These seventeen kilometers we covered in four and a half hours.
• 3. Over the past month, prices have increased by 4.3 (percent). - Over the past month, prices have risen by four point and three percent.
• 4. The brochure was published in 1500 (circulation). - The brochure has been published in a circulation of one thousand five hundred copies.
• 5. He will be back by 15 (May). He will be back by the fifteenth of May.

Task 8. Correct the mistakes in the use of adjectives

• 1. Our goal is to show the best performances of skaters. - Our goal is to show the best performances of the skaters.
• 2. This story was written quite early. This story was written quite early.
• 3. These periodicals are interesting and accessible. - These periodical materials are interesting and accessible.
• 4. The plant has a higher performance this year than last. - The plant has higher indicators this year than last year.
• 5. The research method is correct and appropriate to the complexity of the problem itself. - The research method is chosen correctly and corresponds to the complexity of the problem itself.

Task 9. Correct mistakes in complex sentences

• 1. I took a book from the library that tells about the life of animals. I took a book from the library that tells about the life of animals.
• 2. Mankind is seized with a passionate desire to ensure that war, due to its enormity, would outlive itself. - Mankind is seized with a passionate desire that war, due to its enormity, would outlive itself.
• 3. Some of the speakers in the debate suggested that the rapporteur did not mean to belittle his own proposal. - Some of the speakers in the debate suggested that the speaker wanted to downplay his own proposal.
• four. . The whole presentation in the book is made extremely short, taking into account the time budget of the practitioner. - All presentation in the book is made extremely short, taking into account the time budget of the practitioner.
• 5. In modern Bulgaria, agriculture is so different from what it was before the Second World War, just as the entire economy of the country is different from the pre-war one. - In modern Bulgaria, agriculture is so different from what it was before the Second World War, and in general the entire economy of the country is different from the pre-war one.

Task 10. Put stress on the following words

Commonplace, rust, flint, cooking, glimpse, convoking, mindful, means, prettier, utterly, regular, muscular, prey, intent, chassis, apostrophe, asymmetry, armorial, corked, understood, aristocracy.

Bibliography

• 1. Vvedenskaya L.A. A culture of speech. - Rostov-on-Don: Slovo, 2004 - 298 p.
• 2. Maksimov V.I. Russian language and culture of speech. Textbook. - M.: VLADOS, 2006 - 236 p.
• 3. Ozhegov S. I. Shvedova N. Yu. Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language - M .: Nauka, 2006 - 987 p.

One of the grammatical connections in Russian is agreement. Examples of such a connection are very common in speech. Along with control and adjacency, coordination is part of its three main varieties.

Between what parts of speech is an agreement established?

Nouns or other parts of speech acting as a noun (pronouns, participles, adjectives, substantiated words) are combined with full participles, ordinal and collective numbers, adjectives, pronouns (relative, possessive, demonstrative, attributive, negative and indefinite) and nouns - by the agreed applications by the “matching” communication. Examples: a singing artist, some excitement.

What is consent?

Often the main and dependent words in a sentence are in the same gender, number and case. This relationship is called "consistency". Examples of exceptions are also found here. Such is the application when the dependent word may not be combined in gender (to the mother-doctor). if at least some grammes are repeated both in the dependent and in the main word, then this is an agreement.

Sentence examples

1. The laughing girl's eyes were cunningly screwed up.

• Were who? for a girl - a feminine noun, singular, in the genitive case, singular.
• At the girl which? laughing - feminine participle, singular, in the genitive case, singular.

2. The baby had bracelets on both hands.

• Were on what? on the handles - a feminine noun, plural, in the genitive case.
• On handles how many? both - the collective numeral feminine, plural, in the genitive case.

3. What joy shone her face!

• shone how? joy - a feminine noun, singular, in the instrumental case.
• Joy which? which is a feminine relative pronoun, singular, in the instrumental case.

In speech, agreement is very common. Examples of phrases: a laughing girl (full participle with a noun), on both handles (collective numeral with a noun), what joy with a noun), on the ninth floor (ordinal number with a noun), she is mine (personal pronoun with a possessive pronoun), not waiting for them (personal pronoun with full participle).

Features of combinations of cardinal numbers with nouns

This is a rather interesting case. After all, they can act as the main word, if they stand in the nominative or accusative cases - there is a connection “management”. And in indirect cases they become dependent words, agreeing with the noun in gender, number and case. Thus, with the help of the same phrase, two types of communication can be demonstrated - “coordination”, “management”. Examples:

1. Seven hours later, Tatyana reached the place where the picnic was organized.

• Seven (main word in the nominative case) what? hours (genitive case) - management.

2. Seven hours later, Tatyana reached the place where the picnic was organized.

• How? hours (the main word is plural in the instrumental case) how many? family (quantitative numeral in the plural in the instrumental case) - agreement.

The difference in the agreement of participles, adjectives and substantiated nouns

Considering the agreement with the examples, some especially attentive people notice some peculiarities. Not expressed by spelling, however, they play a role in parsing. Help to understand these differences, where the connection is traced agreement, examples:

1. The student on duty, neat and fit, reported on the readiness of the group for classes.

• Student on duty - agreement, where the main word is "student", and the dependent word - "on duty" - is an adjective.

2. The attendant, neat and smart, reported on the readiness of the group for classes.

• "On duty" in this case acts as a substantiated noun, having the form of an adjective, is the main word. Its dependent words are "preppy" and "tight", which are consistent with it.

Three in sentences

The combination of words in Russian is subject to special rules. You should know that there are three main connections in phrases: Their examples in Russian speech are used quite widely. It is thanks to them that words are combined into sentences. They will help to consider and analyze all three - control, coordination, adjoining - examples taken from one sentence: "A fluffy kitten with a striped tail played merrily with an orange ball."

Control

This type of grammatical connection implies the presence of a main word that controls the dependent. Often the main role is played by the verb, which requires a certain case form from the noun. In this example, from the verb "played" to the word "ball" you can ask the question "what?". This question requires putting the dependent noun in the instrumental case. Therefore, these words are related to management. Even if you replace the noun "ball" with another, for example, "butterfly" or "ball", it will also be in the instrumental case. The role of dependent words can also be numerals (both), pronouns (them), substantiated words (homeless). The main words can also be a variety of parts of speech. For example: verbs, nouns (fingers what? hands), participles (running why? by waves), cardinal numbers in the nominative or accusative case (two whom? person), adverbs (joyfully from what? from thought), adjectives (funny from what? from understanding).

adjoining

This type of connection is not based on the grammatical meaning of the dependent word, but only on the lexical one. Adjoining the main one are adverbs, infinitives, gerunds, invariable adjectives or standing in a simple comparative form, inconsistent applications (nouns). The example about the kitten also uses the adjunction in the phrase "played fun" (played as? fun).

Coordination. Puns and jokes

There is also an agreement connection in this proposal. Examples: fluffy kitten, with a striped tail, orange ball. Here you can see the complete agreement of the main and dependent words in gender, number and case. However, there are cases of incomplete agreement. This occurs when a connection is observed between nouns, where the dependent is an application and is expressed by a noun of a different kind. For example, the spouse-director, the sister-administrator and the like. Interesting cases when there is a play on words. The pun is based on the fact that the form of the masculine noun in and in the genitive is the same in pronunciation and spelling. Therefore, it is quite easy to turn agreement into management, which changes the whole meaning of what was said.

1. He could not help but love his doctor wife.

   The nouns "spouse" and "doctor" in this text are connected by agreement, and both are in the accusative case.

2. He could not help but love the doctor's wife.

   In this context, only the word "wife" is in the accusative case. Asking the question "spouse whom? doctor" it can be established that the dependent is in the genitive case, which the main word requires. Therefore, communication is called control. By spelling, all words are the same, only in the second case there is no hyphen, which changes not only the grammatical categories of the dependent word, but also the very meaning of what was said.

The Russian language is very interesting and multifaceted. The subtle nuances of using word connections should be carefully studied and understood so as not to get into a stupid situation.

4. Syntactic relations in a phrase.

5. Coordination as a type of subordination. Types of agreement: complete and incomplete.

6. Management as a kind of subordination. Strong and weak control, nominal adjunction.

7. Adjacency as a type of subordination.

8. Offer as the main unit. syntax. The main features of the proposal.

9. Actual division of the proposal.

11. Types of sentences on the replacement of positions of the main and secondary members of the sentence. Parceling.

13. Simple verbal predicate, a complication of a simple verbal sentence.

14. Compound verb predicate

15. Compound nominal predicate.

16. Definitely personal suggestions.

17. Indefinitely personal offers

18. Generalized personal sentences.

19. Impersonal and infinitive sentences.

20. Nominative sentences and their types. Question about genitive and vocative sentences.

21. Syntactically inseparable sentences and their varieties.

22. Addition, its types and ways of expression.

23. Definition, its types and ways of expression. Application as a special kind of definition.

24. Circumstance, its types and ways of expression. The concept of determinants.

Homogeneous and heterogeneous definitions

26. Offers with separate members. The concept of separation. The main conditions for the separation of secondary members of the proposal.

27. Separate definitions and applications.

Standalone Applications

28. Separate circumstances.

29. Separate turnovers with the meaning of inclusion, exclusion and substitution. Separation of clarifying explanatory and connecting members of the sentence.

Clarifying, explanatory and connecting members of the sentence

30. Offers with appeal. Ways of expressing appeals. Punctuation marks when addressing.

31. Introductory words and phrases, their lexical-semantic categories and grammatical expression.

32. Plug-in designs.

33. Compound sentence as a unit of syntax. Means of expressing syntactic relations in a complex sentence. Word types Suggestion

34. Types of compound sentences by the number of predicative parts (open and closed structures). Means of communication sp.

35. Compound sentences with connecting and connecting relations.

36. Compound sentences with disjunctive and adversative relations.

37. Complex sentences of undivided and dissected structure.

43. Complex sentences with conditional and causal relationships.

44. Complex sentences with concessive relations.

45. Complex sentences with subordinate goals and consequences.

46. ​​Types of subordination in complex sentences with several subordinate clauses.

47. Unionless compound sentences. Semantic relations between the parts of the unionless sl. Offers and means of their expression.

48. Punctuation marks in a non-union complex sentence

52. Text as the highest communicative organization of speech. The main features of the text: coherence, integrity, completeness, articulation.

The order of parsing a compound sentence

The order of syntactic analysis of a complex sentence

The order of syntactic analysis of a non-union complex sentence

Syntactic parsing of a simple sentence:

Syntactic parsing of the phrase:

5. Coordination as a type of subordination. Types of agreement: complete and incomplete.

Agreement is a kind of subordinating relationship in which the dependent word is likened in its form to the dominant word, for example: important issue, main street, new houses. The main word in agreement is a noun (or a word in its meaning), a dependent adjective, a participle, as well as a numeral and a pronoun, similar in form to an adjective: a green oak, a verdant oak in the distance, an oak third from the road, this oak. Sometimes the dependent word in agreement can be a noun: hero city, teenage girl, giant cliff.

A dependent word can agree in number, gender and case, or in number and case, or only in case.

When negotiating, a change in the main word causes a corresponding change in the dependent word: green oak - green oak - green oak etc.

Agreement is expressed using the ending of the dependent word.

The agreement differs complete and incomplete .

At complete in agreement, the subordinate word takes all forms of the subordinate word, as far as the grammatical categories of both words allow, for example: dark night(agreement in gender, case and number); last minutes(agreement in case and number); marks are set(consent in number).

At incomplete agreement, not all the possibilities of agreement have been exhausted, for example: I see him ready to go(coordination of the adjective ready with its pronoun in gender and number, but not in the case; cf. the outdated construction I see him ready to leave - with full agreement). With incomplete agreement, the assimilation of the dependent word to the main one does not occur in all the categories of the same name that they have: for example, in combination with cardinal numbers ( two large tables, two large books) adjective big agrees with nouns only in case, not agreeing in number, and the numeral two agrees with nouns in gender but not in case

6. Management as a kind of subordination. Strong and weak control, nominal adjunction.

Management is a kind of subordinating relationship in which the dependent word is put in a certain case form (without a preposition or with a preposition) due to the lexical and grammatical meaning of the dominant word, for example: read a letter, be interested in art, love for the motherland. Different types of control are distinguished depending on the morphological nature of the dominant word, the presence or absence of a preposition in front of the dependent word, the nature of the connection between both words.

Management is substantive ( book reading), adjective ( capable of music), verbal ( write with a pen), adverb ( answered better than me).

There is a difference between direct control, or non-prepositional ( see the picture), and mediocre or prepositional ( look at the picture).

Management is called strong , if there is a necessary connection between the dominant and dependent words, expressed in the fact that the dominant word needs to be distributed in a certain case form, for example: test the machine, break the silence, full of vigor.

At weak the connection between the two words is optional, it is not determined by the lexical and grammatical features of the dominant word as a necessary connection, for example: the sun has set behind the forest, I often walk in the evenings.

Nominal adjunction- this is such a connection of words in which an indirect case of a name without a preposition or with a preposition is attached to a verb, noun, adjective or adverb, and at the same time, proper or adverbial-characterizing or complementary relations arise. Thus, the difference between nominal adjacency and weak control is that with nominal adjacency, it is not the objective meaning of the adjoining name that prevails, but the attributive (in the broad sense of the word) meaning of the case form itself or the entire prepositional case group that appears in this case as a potential adverb or potential "adjective form".

The meanings of word forms that enter into the relationship of nominal adjunction lie in the field of not only grammatical, but also lexical semantics and cannot be described in detail in syntax. In the syntactic description, these meanings should be as generalized as possible. As a result of such a generalization, for word forms that enter into the relationship of nominal adjacency, the following circle of characterizing meanings can be outlined: 1) self-characterizing; 2) circumstantial-characterizing: the meaning is temporary (temporal); spatial or local (including both the direct meaning and the transfers arising on its basis, the meaning of origin, origin, relatedness, etc.); quantitative (measures); conditional; causal (stimulus, reason, grounds); target (including purpose, purpose); retribution; compatibility.

Nominal adjacency is a weak link. This connection turns out to be strong only with words that, according to their semantics, necessarily require a dependent word form that makes up for their informative insufficiency: to be, to be, to be, etc. In these cases, complex relationships arise.

Home the norm of agreement in Russian is agreement of the subject with the predicate in a sentence ( Sun is up. Roosters crowed.), as well as agreement of the determined with the main word in the phrase ( red apple, wooden table). But the Russian language is very multifaceted, so sometimes it is quite difficult to determine the dependent form. To do this, you need to know about some rules.

1. In official speech, the semantic replacement of agreement is considered incorrect in cases where a masculine noun denoting a profession or type of activity agrees with a feminine verb (if the person who names the noun is a feminine person):

The doctor entered the room (not corr.). - Doctor Tikhonova entered the ward (corr.).

As we can see, only if there is a proper name indicating belonging to the feminine gender, the predicate is consistent with the proper name in the feminine gender. The same thing happens in the presence of a stand-alone application, which is expressed by a common noun:

Alyona, my curator, today I could not come to class.

2. At the same time, in other phrases like "common + own"(names of cities, rivers, countries, names of animals, etc.) the predicate is consistent with the common noun:

Hero City Moscow these days looked pretty gloomy. kitty Cherry had white nose and funny tassels on the ears.

3. Phrases with collective nouns require agreement in the singular, without any exceptions. Semantic agreement in this case is a case of vernacular and is categorically not allowed.

The crowd of people were noisy and worried (nekorr.). - The crowd of people was noisy and worried (corr.).

The bride's relatives did not like the groom very much (corr.) - The bride's relatives did not really love the groom (corr.).

Agreement with the pronoun "who", "what".

Pronouns "who" ("someone") and "what" ("something") by default require singular agreement: who- male, what- average.

Whoever came in to the room, everyone praised the new renovation.

Something light and bright settled in her soul.

Agreement with words of a different gender and number possible only if used with a qualifying pronoun "that" (that, then, those):

Those who came to a meeting got a lot of pleasant impressions.

The one that was me, for a long time has changed and became another.

Coordination of nouns associated with the numerals "two", "three", "four", with definitions.

1. Nouns masculine and neuter in such phrases consistent with the definition in the genitive plural. In this case, the noun in such a phrase will be in the form of the genitive case: two open windows, four small cucumbers.

2. Nouns the feminine in this case takes the form of the nominative plural, and agrees with the definition in the same form: three green birches, two huge parcels. If the noun takes the genitive plural form, then the definition can also take the genitive form:

From the hillside one could see two snow-covered tops.

As you can see, in each of these cases the numeral is in the nominative case, regardless of the case in which the other parts of the phrase are.

Agreement between the predicate and the subject, which is a collective quantity (“most”, “half”, “row”, “part”).

1. If the controlled word is in the plural, then the collective noun comes into agreement with the predicate, as a result of which the predicate is used in the form of a singular person: Most employees supported reform.
2. If the noun does not have controlled words or the existing controlled word is in the singular, then the predicate is also used in the singular person: A number of symptoms pointed out for pneumonia. Majority supported lifting of sanctions.

From this rule, there are several exceptions when the predicate can be used in the plural:

• If a noun has several controlled words in the plural form at once: Most girls, girls and women adore sweets.
• If there are other members of the sentence between the subject and the predicate, a subordinate clause with a conjunction in the plural form or participial turnover: Some of the visitors who watched the premiere stayed frankly dissatisfied. Most of the visitors who watched the premiere stayed frankly dissatisfied.
• If the sentence contains a compound nominal predicate, the nominal part of which is expressed by participles and adjectives: Part of the trees in this forest were coniferous.
• If along with the subject there are homogeneous predicates: A number of symptoms aggravated and become much sharper.

The same rules apply to sentences with the words "many", "little", "how many", "several", "so many", "many" in the role of the subject and agreement with the predicate.