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AGREEMENT RULES
ENGLISH, Mrs. DeSanta
AGREEMENT OF SUBJECT AND VERB
• Singular subjects take singular verb:
George illustrates books for children.
• Plural subjects take plural verbs:
George and Terry illustrate books for children.
THE NUMBER OF A SUBJECT IS NOT CHANGED BY A WORD IN A
PHRASE OR A CLAUSE FOLLOWING THE SUBJECT:
The short stories are by various authors.
The short stories in this anthology are by various authors.
Indefinite Pronouns
• These indefinite pronouns are singular:
anybody, anyone, anything, each, either, everybody,
everyone, everything, neither, nobody, no one, nothing, one
somebody, someone, something
• These indefinite pronouns are plural:
both, few, many, several
• These indefinite pronouns can be either:
all, any, more, most, none some
Compound Subjects
• Subjects joined by “and” usually take a plural
verb
• Singular subjects joined by “or” or “nor” take
a singular verb
• When a singular subject and a plural subject
are joined by “or” or “nor”, the verb agrees
with the subject nearer the verb:
Either the musicians or the singer is off-key.
Either the singer or the musicians are off-key.
Special Cases
• Don’t and doesn’t
• If the subject follows the verb, find the subject
and make sure the verb agrees with it:
Here is the book…
Here are the books…
• Know your collective nouns (team, group…)
• Amounts may be singular or plural
Twenty-seven dollars is all we have raised so far.
Twenty-seven dollars were lying on the floor.
More Special Cases
• Some nouns that are plural in form take
singular verbs (economics, molasses, news)
• Some nouns that refer to single items take
plural verbs (eyeglasses, pants, binoculars)
• The titles of books, songs, countries,
organizations (even if plural in form) take a
singular verb (The Netherlands, Girl Scouts)
Agreement of Pronouns and
Antecedents
• A pronoun should agree in number, gender,
and person with its antecedent
Isadora Duncan founded her own dance
company.
Squirrels love their acorns.
Jack and Jill broke their crown.
Jack split his head open.