Mastering Subject-Verb Agreement



Mastering Subject-Verb Agreement

A common error in writing is subject-verb agreement. If your subject is singular, your verb must also be in the singular form. Likewise, if your subject is plural, its corresponding verb must also be plural.

This rule is difficult to follow only when the writer doesn’t know which word in the sentence is the subject and thus makes the verb agree with the wrong word.

Here is an example of this type of confusion:

Only one of the students are going to win the raffle.

Here, the subject of the sentence is one, not students. The verb must therefore agree with one, which is singular. “Are” does not agree with “one.” The sentence must be corrected to

Only one of the students is going to win the raffle.

Note that words that end in –one, -thing, or –body are always singular. These words include:

anyone anything anybody everyone everything everybody

no one nothing nobody someone something somebody

It is fairly easy to apply the rule of subject-verb agreement when you are writing simple sentences. For example, you would never write: “Everybody are on the bus.” The confusion usually happens when you include a number of words between your subject and your verb, for example: “Everybody going on the ski trip to Montreal are on the bus.” The meaning is plural – more than one person is on the bus. But the subject, everybody, is singular, so the verb must also be in singular form.

Special Cases

Some subjects are more complicated. They appear to be singular when they’re actually plural, or vice-versa.

1. Compound subjects joined by or; either… or; neither…nor; not…but

If your subject is compound and joined by “and,” it remains plural. But if your subject is compound and joined by one of the words above, the verb must agree with the subject closest to it. If that word is plural, the verb must be plural and if that subject is singular, the verb must be singular as well.

For example:

Neither the captain nor the passengers want the flight to be delayed.

Neither the passengers nor the captain wants the flight to be delayed.

2. The subject appears to be plural, but actually it is singular.

For example:

Justina, along with two of her friends, is trying out for the basketball team.

Obviously, three people are trying out for the team. But the subject is only one person, so the corresponding verb is singular.

All of my classes, except drama, have homework every night.

In both cases, if you cross out the extra information after the subject, it is easy to determine which verb form to use.

3. Each (of), either (of), neither (of)

Used as subjects, these words or phrases all take singular verbs.

For example:

Either of these restaurants is acceptable to eat at.

Each wants a new bike.

Neither of the stores is open.

4. Collective nouns. (These are nouns that name a group.) When the group is acting as a unit, use a singular verb. When all the members of the group are acting individually, use a plural verb.

For example:

The team is sure to win the game.

The team are getting into their uniforms now.

5. Units of time, money, mass, length and distance, when used as subjects, all require singular verbs.

For example:

Five kilometers is too far to travel in a snowstorm.

80 pounds is the minimum weight requirement for the roller coaster.

Two hours is a long time to wait at the doctor’s office.

EXERCISE A: Correct the errors in subject-verb agreement. Some sentences may have to be modified slightly.

1. Neither of the following two sentences are correct.

2. The school has decided that neither final marks nor a diploma are to be issued to students who owe library fines.

3. None of these computer programs are able to streamline our billing procedures.

4. The enjoyment of puns and jokes involving plays on words are the result of having too little else on your mind.

5. It is amazing how much better the orchestra play now that they have a new conductor.

6. Her supervisors all agree that Emily need further training to be effective.

EXERCISE B: Circle the correct verb form

7. By noon on Friday, the entire school (has/ have) left their classes and are out enjoying the weekend.

8. Each of these courses( involve/involves) a field placement.

9. The Tour de France, like the Olympic Games (is/are) a world class athletic competition.

10. Each of the women (want/wants) desperately to be selected for The Bachelor.

11. Strict discipline is what each of our teachers (believe/believes) in.

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