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Pasco-Hernando Community College
Tutorial Series
Subject-Verb Agreement
 The predicate (verb) in a sentence must agree with its
subject in number. In the present tense, singular
subjects must have singular verbs, and plural subjects
must have plural verbs.
 Generally, singular nouns take verbs which end in the
letter s.
 Alice goes to the store.
 The bird flies south in winter.
Subject-Verb Agreement
 Plural nouns generally take verbs that do not end in s.
 Alice and Michael go to the store. (They go.)
 Birds fly south in winter.
No s for plural verbs
 Be careful not to confuse making plurals in nouns and
verbs. The plural of nouns has an s. A plural verb does
not have an s:
 They go.
 She goes.
Subject-Verb Agreement
Problem Areas
 For most native speakers of English, subject-verb
agreement is not a problem except there are a few
situations which can be confusing.
Subjects Separated from Verbs
 One problem arises when the subject is separated
from the verb in the sentence. Usually in English, the
order of ideas in a sentence is subject and then verb.
 The parents are in the waiting room.
Prepositional Phrases
 Prepositional phrases can sometimes separate the
subject and the verb. A prepositional phrase begins
with a preposition such as in, on, at, of, and ends with
the object of that preposition.
 The parents of the child are in the waiting room.
 The words of the child are the prepositional phrase.
Prepositional Phrases
 The word child is the object of the preposition and is
not the subject of the sentence. This can cause
confusion because the child is right before the verb
and the ear wants to make the verb agree with the
closest noun, in this case the singular noun child.
However, the true subject of this sentence is still the
plural noun parents, so the verb must also remain
plural: parents are.
Relative Pronouns
 Another separation also occurs with relative pronouns
such as who, whom, that, and which.
 The parents who called Dr. Smith are in the waiting
room.
 To avoid making this error, always make sure you know
what the true subject of the sentence is, not just the
words closest to the verb: parents are.
Singular or Plural Subjects?
 Sometimes errors are made not because the subject
was incorrectly identified, but because of confusion
about whether the subject is singular or plural.
 One commonly confused type is the indefinite
pronoun.
Always Singular
 The following are always singular:
 each, either, neither, and words that end in –body or -
one such as anybody or anyone
 Each of the dogs was removed. Each was.
 Everybody with measles is quarantined. Everybody is.
Always Plural
 The following are always plural:
 few, many, several, both
 Both are out of the office.
 Several in the room were disappointed. Several were.
Based on Context
 all, any, none, most, some
 All of my money is gone. All is gone. (The word All is
referring to the amount of money.)
 All of my bills are due. All is due. (The word All is
referring to the amount of bills.)
 These words can be singular or plural depending on
context.
Either-Or or Neither-Nor
 While either and neither alone are always single, when
they are paired with an or / nor, a different rule
applies. The verb agrees with the nearer part of the
subject.
 Either the dogs or the cat is scratching at the door. Cat is
 Either the cat or the dogs are scratching at the door.
Dogs are