The 20 Rules of Subject Verb Agreement in Standard English

1. Subjects and verbs must agree in number. This is the cornerstone rule that forms the background of the concept. The dog growls when he is angry. The dogs growl when they are angry. 2. Dont get confused by the words that come between the subject and verb; they do not affect agreement. The dog, who is chewing on my jeans, is usually very good. 3. Prepositional phrases between the subject and verb usually do not affect agreement. The colors of the rainbow are beautiful. 4. When sentences start with there or here, the subject will always be placed after the verb, so care needs to be taken to identify it correctly. There is a problem with the balance sheet.Here are the papers you requested. 5. Subjects don't always come before verbs in questions. Make sure you accurately identify the subject before deciding on the proper verb form to use. Does Lefty usually eat grass? Where are the pieces of this puzzle. 6. If two subjects are joined by and, they typically require a plural verb form. The cow and the pig are jumping over the moon. 7. The verb is singular if the two subjects separated by and refer to the same person or thing. Red beans and rice is my mom's favorite dish. 8. If one of the words each, every, or no comes before the subject, the verb is singular. No smoking or drinking is allowed.Every man and woman is required to check in. 9. If the subjects are both singular and are connected by the words or, nor, neither/nor, either/or, and not only/but also the verb is singular. Jessica or Christian is to blame for the accident. 10. The only time when the object of the preposition factors into the decision of plural or singular verb forms is when noun and pronoun subjects like some, half, none, more, all, etc. are followed by a prepositional phrase. In these sentences, the object of the preposition determines the form of the verb. All of the chicken is gone.All of the chickens are gone. 11. The singular verb form is usually used for units of measurement. Four quarts of oil was required to get the car running. 12. If the subjects are both plural and are connected by the words or, nor, neither/nor, either/or, and not only/but also, the verb is plural. Dogs and cats are both available at the pound. 13. If one subject is singular and one plural and the words are connected by the words or, nor, neither/nor, either/or, and not only/but also, you use the verb form of the subject that is nearest the verb.

Either the bears or the lion has escaped from the zoo. Neither the lion nor the bears have escaped from the zoo. 14. Indefinite pronouns typically take singular verbs. Everybody wants to be loved. 15. * Except for the pronouns (few, many, several, both, all, some) that always take the plural form. Few were left alive after the flood. 16. If two infinitives are separated by and they take the plural form of the verb. To walk and to chew gum require great skill. 17. When gerunds are used as the subject of a sentence they take the singular verb form of the verb, but when they are linked by and they take the plural form. Standing in the water was a bad idea.Swimming in the ocean and playing drums are my hobbies. 18. Collective nouns like herd, senate, class, crowd, etc. usually take a singular verb form. The herd is stampeding. 19. Titles of books, movies, novels, etc. are treated as singular and take a singular verb. The Burbs is a movie starring Tom Hanks. 20. Final Rule Remember, only the subject affects the verb!

Challenges of Grammar Rules

The problem with some grammar rules from the perspective of modern linguistics is that there is not one absolute grammar in the English language. Most American native English speakers equate standard English with being correct and any non-standard variation of English with being incorrect. In reality, however, the concept of standard American English is really the privileging of a particular dialect of English that originates from the Ohio River Valley. This is the dialect of English that the anchors of the nightly news speak and that we base our notions of correct and incorrect grammar on. It is important to recognize that no grammar is any more correct or incorrect than any other on a functional level, and our notions of correct and incorrect are culturally constructed.

Basic Rule.

The basic rule states that a singular subject takes a singular verb, while a plural subject takes a plural verb. NOTE: The trick is in knowing whether the subject is singular or plural. The next trick is recognizing a singular or plural verb. Hint: Verbs do not form their plurals by adding an s as nouns do. In order to determine which verb is singular and which one is plural, think of which verb you would use with he or she and which verb you would use with they. Example : talks, talk Which one is the singular form? Which word would you use with he? We say, "He talks." Therefore, talks is singular. We say, "They talk." Therefore, talk is plural.

Rule 1.

Two singular subjects connected by or or nor require a singular verb.

Example :

My aunt or my uncle is arriving by train today.

Rule 2.

Two singular subjects connected by either/or or neither/nor require a singular verb as in Rule 1. Examples : Neither Juan nor Carmen is available. Either Kiana or Casey is helping today with stage decorations.

Rule 3.

When I is one of the two subjects connected by either/or or neither/nor, put it second and follow it with the singular verb am. Example : Neither she nor I am going to the festival.

Rule 4.

When a singular subject is connected by or or nor to a plural subject, put the plural subject last and use a plural verb. Example : The serving bowl or the plates go on that shelf.

Rule 5.

When a singular and plural subject are connected by either/or or neither/nor, put the plural subject last and use a plural verb. Example : Neither Jenny nor the others are available.

Rule 6.

As a general rule, use a plural verb with two or more subjects when they are connected by and. Example : A car and a bike are my means of transportation.

Rule

Sometimes the subject is separated from the verb by words such as along

7.

with, as well as, besides, or not. Ignore these expressions when determining whether to use a singular or plural verb. Examples : The politician, along with the newsmen, is expected shortly. Excitement, as well as nervousness, is the cause of her shaking.

Rule 8.

The pronouns each, everyone, every one, everybody, anyone, anybody, someone, and somebody are singular and require singular verbs. Do not be misled by what follows of. Examples : Each of the girls sings well. Every one of the cakes is gone. NOTE: Everyone is one word when it means everybody. Every one is two words when the meaning is each one.

Rule 9.

With words that indicate portionspercent, fraction, part, majority, some, all, none, remainder, and so forth look at the noun in your of phrase (object of the preposition) to determine whether to use a singular or plural verb. If the object of the preposition is singular, use a singular verb. If the object of the preposition is plural, use a plural verb. Examples : Fifty percent of the pie has disappeared. Pie is the object of the preposition of. Fifty percent of the pies have disappeared. Pies is the object of the preposition. One-third of the city is unemployed. One-third of the people are unemployed. NOTE: Hyphenate all spelled-out fractions. All of the pie is gone. All of the pies are gone. Some of the pie is missing. Some of the pies are missing. None of the garbage was picked up. None of the sentences were punctuated correctly. Of all her books, none have sold as well as the first one.

NOTE: Apparently, the SAT testing service considers none as a singular word only. However, according to Merriam Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, "Clearly none has been both singular and plural since Old English and still is. The notion that it is singular only is a myth of unknown origin that appears to have arisen in the 19th century. If in context it seems like a singular to you, use a singular verb; if it seems like a plural, use a plural verb. Both are acceptable beyond serious criticism" (p. 664).

Rule 10.

The expression the number is followed by a singular verb while the expression a number is followed by a plural verb. Examples : The number of people we need to hire is thirteen. A number of people have written in about this subject.

Rule 11.

When either and neither are subjects, they always take singular verbs.

Examples :

Neither of them is available to speak right now. Either of us is capable of doing the job.

Rule 12.

The words here and there have generally been labeled as adverbs even though they indicate place. In sentences beginning with here or there, the subject follows the verb. Examples: There are four hurdles to jump. There is a high hurdle to jump.

Rule 13.

Use a singular verb with sums of money or periods of time.

Examples :

Ten dollars is a high price to pay. Five years is the maximum sentence for that offense.

Rule 14.

Sometimes the pronoun who, that, or which is the subject of a verb in the middle of the sentence. The pronouns who, that, and which become singular or plural according to the noun directly in front of them. So, if that noun is singular, use a singular verb. If it is plural, use a plural verb. Examples : Salma is the scientist who writes/write the reports. The word in front of who is scientist, which is singular. Therefore, use the singular verb writes. He is one of the men who does/do the work. The word in front of who is men, which is plural. Therefore, use the plural verb do.

Rule 15.

Collective nouns such as team and staff may be either singular or plural depending on their use in the sentence. Examples : The staff is in a meeting. Staff is acting as a unit here. The staff are in disagreement about the findings. The staff are acting as separate individuals in this example. The sentence would read even better as: The staff members are in disagreement about the findings.

Subject - Verb Agreement

Although you are probably already familiar with basic subject-verb agreement, this chapter begins with a quick review of basic agreement rules. Subjects and verbs must AGREE with one another in number (singular or plural). Thus, if a subject is singular, its verb must also be singular; if a subject is plural, its verb must also be plural. In the present tense, nouns and verbs form plurals in opposite ways: nouns ADD an s to the singular form; verbs REMOVE the s from the singular form.

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

The agreement rules do, however, apply to the following helping verbs when they are used with a main verb: is-are, was-were, has-have, does-do.

The agreement rules do not apply to has-have when used as the SECOND helping verb in a pair.

They do NOT apply to any other helping verbs, such as can, could, shall, should, may, might, will, would, must.

The subject-verb agreement rules apply to all personal pronouns except I and you, which, although SINGULAR, require PLURAL forms of verbs.

Now click onthe link below to do exercise 1. Link to Exercise 1

The remainder of this teaching unit deals with some more advanced subject-verb agreement rules and with exceptions to the original subject-verb agreement rule Compound Subject 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 compounding:

Compound nouns can function as a compound subject. In some instances, a compound subject poses special problems for the subject-verb agreement rule (+s, -s).

However, instead of using two sentences (as above), we may choose to give the above information in one sentence.

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. SUBJECT-VERB RULE #1 Two or more singular (or plural) subjects joined by and act as a plural compound subject and take a plural verb (singular + singular = plural). You can check the verb by substituting the pronoun they for the compound subject.

Or and nor as joiners word somewhat differently from and. While the word and seems to ADD things together, or and nor do not. They suggest a CHOICE.

Look at this sentence.

This sentence makes use of a compound subject (two subject nouns joined together by or). Each part of the compound subject (ranger, camper) is singular. Even though both words function together as subject (joined by or), the subject still remains SINGULAR (ranger or camper) since a CHOICE is implied. This compound subject, therefore, requires a singular verb to agree with it.

SUBJECT-VERB RULE #2 Two or more SINGULAR subjects joined by or (or nor) act as a singular compound subject and, therefore, take a singular verb to agree. Note: Two or more plural subjects joined by or (or nor) would naturally take a plural verb to agree.

However, or and nor can pose a more difficult problem. Thus far we have been working with compound subjects whose individual parts are both either singular or plural

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

What form of a verb should be used in this case? Should the verb be singular to agree with one word? Or should the verb be plural to agree with the other? Solution: 1. If the individual parts of the compound subject are joined by and, always use a plural verb.

2. 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.

Now click onthe link below to do exercise 2.

Group Nouns

Some nouns which name groups can be either singular or plural depending upon their meaning in individual sentences.

Because they can describe either the individuals in the group (more than one plural), or the group as a single entity (one only singular), these nouns pose special problems. However, there are some guidelines for deciding which verb form (singular or plural) to use with one of these nouns as the subject in a sentence. If we refer to the group as a whole and, therefore, as a single unit, we consider the noun singular. In this case, we use a singular verb.

If, on the other hand, we are actually referring to the individuals within the group, then we consider the noun plural. In this case, we use a plural verb.

Of course group nouns, like other nouns, can also appear in plural forms (with an s).

When used in the plural form, group nouns mean MORE THAN ONE GROUP. Thus, it uses a plural verb.

Thus, there are three important subject verb agreement rules to remember when a group noun is used as the subject: 1. Group nouns can be considered as a single unit, and, thus, take a singular verb. 2. Group nouns can be considered as individual members within a single unit and, thus, take a plural verb. 3. Group nouns can be given plural forms to mean two or more units and, thus, take a plural verb. Now click onthe link below to do exercise 3.

Plural Form / Singular Meaning Nouns Some nouns are regularly plural in form, but singular in meaning.

Even though these nouns APPEAR to be plural because they end in s, they actually refer to only one thing made up of smaller, uncounted parts. Therefore, they are considered singular.

You can see that substituting that pronoun it instead of they makes more sense here. Another group of plural form nouns end in ics.

Similarly, it is a more suitable substitute for any of these words than is they. These nouns appear to be plural (end in s), but generally refer to only one thing and are, therefore, generally considered singular.

NOTE: Occasionally, however, the ics nouns can have a plural meaning: We can speak about individual parts of these wholes. In this case, we apply the same rule as applies to group nouns when we consider the individual members within the group (see Section 3.3): We use a plural verb. Note the difference in meaning and, therefore, in the verb chosen (singular or plural) between the two uses of the ics noun, statistics.

Now click onthe link below to do exercise 4.

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.

These should be easy to remember.

However, the following indefinite pronouns ALWAYS take plural verbs.

EXCEPTIONS: A third group of indefinite pronouns takes either a singular or plural verb depending on the pronouns meaning in the sentence. Look at them closely.

(SANAM)

Now click onthe link below to do exercise 5.

So far we have considered subjects that can cause subject-verb agreement confusion: compound subjects, group noun subjects, plural form singular meaning subjects, and indefinite subjects. The remainder of this teaching unit examines subject verb agreement problems that can result from word placement in sentences. There are four main problems: prepositional phrases, clauses beginning with who, that, or which, sentences beginning with here or there, and questions.

Here is a list of frequently used prepositions:

A prepositional phrase may be placed between the subject and verb.

In the above example, the singular verb is agrees with the singular subject boy. Sometimes, however, a prepositional phrase inserted between the subject and verb makes agreement more difficult.

Car is the singular subject. Was is the singular helping verb which agrees with car. If we arent careful, however, we may mistakenly label riders as the subject since it is nearer to the verb than car is. If we choose the plural noun, riders, we will incorrectly select the plural verb were.

Solution to the Prepositional Phrase Problem 1. Learn the major prepositions (see page 28). 2. Be alert for prepositional phrases placed between the subject and verb, and identify the noun in the phrase immediately as the object of a preposition: An object of a preposition can NEVER be a sentence subject. 3. Locate the true sentence subject and choose a verb which agrees with it.

4. Remember the indefinite pronoun EXCEPTIONS considered in Section 3.5, p.18: Some, Any, None, All, and Most. The number of these subject words IS affected by a prepositional phrase between the subject and verb. Now click onthe link below to do exercise 6.

A clause beginning with who, that, or which and coming BETWEEN the subject and verb can cause agreement problems. Like the prepositional phrase, the who / that / which clause never contains the subject.

TO AVOID SUBJECT VERB AGREEMENT ERRORS . . . 1. Identify who / that / which clauses immediately.

2. Locate the true sentence subject and choose a verb that agrees with it.

Now click onthe link below to do exercise 7.

When a sentence begins with there is there are / here is here are, the subject and verb are inverted. After all that you have learned already, you will undoubtedly find this topic a relatively easy one!

The verb in such constructions is obviously is or are. The subject, however, does not come BEFORE the verb. Instead, the subject in this kind of sentence comes AFTER the verb, so you must look for it AFTER the verb.

In this example, because the subject, book, is singular, the verb must also be singular. If the subject is plural, however, then the verb must be plural.

In this example, because the subject, books, is plural, the verb is also plural. Remember: In here is here are / there is there are constructions, look for the subject AFTER the verb and choose a singular (is) or a plural (are) verb to agree with the subject. And finally, sometimes creating a question will cause the subject to follow the verb as well. Here, identify the subject and then choose the verb that agrees with it (singular or plural).