Subject Verb Agreement

 The subject of a sentence must agree with its verb – a singular subject requires a singular verb, and plural subjects require plural verbs.
(Note that the singular verb in the third person usually ends in s; the first and second persons singular and all plural verbs usually do not. Example:  He/She/It [singular] sits, goes, walks, does, but I/you/we/they sit, go, walk, do.)

In present tenses, nouns and verbs form plurals in opposite ways:

  

 nouns ADD an s to the singular form,

            BUT

 verbs REMOVE an s from the singular form.

               

Here are nine subject-verb agreement rules :

1.      1. A phrase or clause between subject and verb does not change the number of the subject.

Example :

  

     2.   Indefinite pronouns as subjects

•         Singular indefinite pronoun subjects take singular verbs. 

•        Plural indefinite pronoun subjects take plural verbs.

       PLURAL:  several, few, both, many

                     

                

•       Some indefinite pronouns may be either singular or plural: with uncountable,    use singular; with  countable, use plural.

                   EITHER SINGULAR OR PLURAL:  some, any, none, all, most

                               

                Sugar is uncountable; therefore, the sentence has a singular verb.

                

                               

                Marbles are countable; therefore, the sentence has a plural verb.

3.  Compound subjects joined by and are always plural.

                     

             

4.  With compound subjects joined by or/nor, the verb agrees with the subject nearer to it.

                

          In the above example, the plural verb are agrees with the nearer subject actors.

               

            In this example, the singular verb is agrees with the nearer subject director.

                

5.  Inverted Subjects must agree with the verb.   

               

              

          

6.  Collective Nouns (group, jury, crowd, team, etc.) may be singular or plural, depending on meaning.

               

            In this example, the jury is acting as one unit; therefore, the verb is singular.

       

               

            In this example, the jury members are acting as twelve individuals; therefore, the verb is     plural.

       

                                  

7.  Titles of single entities (books, organizations, countries, etc.) are always singular.

               

      

8.  Plural form subjects

•              Plural form subjects with a singular meaning take a singular verb. (e.g. news, measles, mumps, physics, etc.)

               

             

•               Plural form subjects with singular or plural meaning take a singular or   plural verb, depending on meaning.  (e.g. politics, economics, etc.)

               

    In this example, politics is a single topic; therefore, the sentence has a singular verb.

               

    In this example, politics refers to the many aspects of the situation; therefore, the sentence has a plural verb.

          

•        Plural form subjects with a plural meaning take a plural verb. (e.g.  scissors, trousers)

               

                                     

            Note:  In this example, the subject of the sentence is pair; therefore, the verb must agree with it.  (Because scissors is the object of the preposition, scissors does not affect the number of the verb.)

                

9.  With subject and subjective complement of different number, the verb always agrees with the subject.

               

               

Example :

Singular subject-singular verb          Plural subject-plural verb

1.      She is dancing                                      They are dancing

2.      She has been dancing                           They have been dancing

3.      She is going to dance                           They are going to dance

4.       She was going to dance                      They were going to dance

5.      She is nice to me.                                They are nice to me.

6.      She is being nice to me.                       They are being nice to me.

7.      She was nice to me.                            They were nice to me.

8.      She was being nice to me.                   They were being nice to me.
9.   She is going to be nice to me.              They are going to be nice to me.
10. She is going to be being nice to me.     They are going to be being nice to me.



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