SUBJECT VERB AGREEMENT

William Reyes

Leonel Mendoza

DEFINITION

Definition: A grammatical rule that states that the

verb must agree in number with its subject.

In other words, singular subjects must have

singular verbs and plural subjects must have plural

verbs.

I liveYou liveHe livesShe livesIt livesWe liveThey live

I washYou washHe washesShe washesIt washesWe washThey wash

Present tense verbs change to show agreement in the third person singular form by adding an “S” or “es”

RULES

Two singular subjects connected by either /or , neither/nor

in a sentence have a singular verb.

Example: Neither mike nor tom is helping at the restaurant.

Example#2: My brother or my sister is going to pick you up

at your school.

When using two or more subjects that are connected by

“and” use a plural verb.

Example: William and Leonel are freshman at UC Merced.

MORE RULES

The verb agrees with the subject, even if there is a

phrase in between that contains a pronoun or noun.

Ex: One of the cars is stolen.

The verb agrees with what follows if there is no

subject at the beginning.

Ex: There are many flowers.

Ex#2: There is a flower.

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/

sv_agr.htm

https://eee.uci.edu/programs/esl/svlink.html

http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/

subjectVerbAgree.asp

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/599/01/

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/

quizzes/svagr2.htm