Subject-Verb Agreement

Subjects and verbs must AGREE with one another in NUMBER.

Basic Principle :

Singular

A singular subject (dog) takes a singular verb (chases), whereas a plural subject (dpgs) takes a plural verb (chase).

Plural

These agreement rules do not apply to verbs used in the simple past tense without any helping verbs.

The word compound means made up of two or more parts. Two or more words can be compounded or linked by joining them with any of three words:

and, or, and nor

Here are some examples of compound words:

The word compound means made up of two or more parts. Two or more words can be compounded or linked by joining them with any of three words:

and, or, and nor

Compound subjects joined by "and"Two or more singular (or plural) subjects joined by "and" act as a plural compound subject and take a plural verb. (singular + singular = plural)

This sentence makes use of a compound subject (two subject nouns joined by and), illustrating a new rule about subject-verb agreement.

Although each part of the compound subject is singular (ranger and camper), taken together (joined by and), each one becomes a part of a plural structure and, therefore, must take a plural verb (see) to agree in the sentence.

Two or more plural subjects joined by "or" / "nor" would naturally take a plural verb to agree.

Two or more singular subjects joined by "or" / "nor" would naturally take a singular verb to agree.My aunt or my uncle is arriving by train today.Neither Juan nor Carmen is available.Either Kiana or Casey is helping today with stage decorations.

What if one part of the compound subject is singular and the other part is plural?

If the individual parts of the compound subject are joined by or or nor, use the verb form (singular or plural) which will agree with the subject closer to the verb.

Indefinite pronouns can pose special problems in subject verb agreement.

The difficulty is that some indefinite pronouns sound plural when they are really singular.

As subjects, the following indefinite pronouns ALWAYS take singular verbs. Look at them closely.

However, the following indefinite pronouns ALWAYS take plural verbs.

A third group of indefinite pronouns takes either a singular or plural verb depending on the pronouns meaning in the sentence.

When every and each come before a singular subject joined by and, the verb is singular. Every man and woman has the right to vote.Each student and teacher was aware of the difficulty.

Rules &Tips

Anyone, everyone, someone, no one, and nobody always require singular verbs.Neither and either require singular verbs even though they seem to be referring to two separate things.Sums of money or periods of time require a singular verb.When a sentence compounds a positive and a negative subject and only one is plural, the verb should agree with the positive subject.Words that indicate portions of a whole, such as percent, fraction, some, all, none, and remainder require a singular verb only if the object of the preposition is singular.

Who, that, and which are singular or plural according to the noun directly in front of them.Typically, you should use a plural verb with two or more subjects when they are connected by and.There and here are never considered to be subjects. In sentences beginning with here or there, the subject follows the verb.

The phrase introduced by as well as or along with modifies the earlier word, but does not compound the subjects.If a sentence includes modifiers between the subject and verb, this does not affect whether the verb is singular or plural.Just because a word ends in s does not automatically make it plural. Consider the word is as an example of this rule.A collective noun such as team or staff can be either singular or plural depending upon the rest of the sentenc

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