Chapter 9.3 Subject-Verb Agreement
Subject-Verb Agreement
Subject-verb agreement means that the subject and verb should agree in number.
Singular subjects need singular verbs.
Example (subject highlighted yellow; verb in italics): The book interests the child.
- “book” is a singular subject; “interests” is a singular verb.
Plural subjects need plural verbs.
Example (subject highlighted yellow; verb in italics): Those restaurants close at 9:00 p.m.
- “restaurants” is a plural subject; “close” is a plural verb.
Subject-verb agreement in sentences that refer to people do not always match in number, particularly with singular human subjects.
Example (subject highlighted yellow; verb in italics): My friend’s cousin is interested in chemistry; they hope to visit a laboratory soon.
- “they” is a plural subject (pronoun) referring to the cousin (singular); “hope” is a plural verb. If you do not know the gender or gender orientation of the person in a sentence, use “they” to be gender inclusive. If you know someone’s gender orientation, use what they prefer.
Remember this convention: people are more important than grammar rules.
“They/Them Pronouns Are in Fact Grammatically Correct,” Tik Tok Video
Errors in Subject-Verb Agreement
Recognizing the sources of common errors in subject-verb agreement will help you avoid these errors in your writing. This section covers the subject-verb agreement errors in more detail.
Errors in subject-verb agreement may occur when
- a prepositional phrase separates the subject and verb
- Example (subject highlighted yellow; verb in italics): Two women on my bowling team always score over 250.
- a sentence contains a compound subject
- Example (subject highlighted yellow; verb in italics): The puppies and kittens need their shots.
- the subject of the sentence is an indefinite pronoun, such as anyone, everything, nobody, etc. indefinite pronouns use a singular verb
- Example (subject highlighted yellow; verb in italics): Everything on that shelf is 50% off.
- Example (subject highlighted yellow; verb in italics): Nobody understands how to do the homework.
- the subject of the sentence is a collective noun, such as team or organization
- Example (subject highlighted yellow; verb in italics): The organization donates to charity at least twice per year.
- the subject appears after the verb, such as in questions or starting sentences with “here” or “there”
- Example (subject highlighted yellow; verb in italics): Where are the keys to the car?
- Example (subject highlighted yellow; verb in italics): There were seventeen people in line at the bank.
Exercise 9.3.1
Rewrite the verb on a separate sheet of paper to correct the errors in subject-verb agreement in the following sentences. If there are no errors in subject-verb agreement, write OK (two sentences are OK).
- My dog and cats chases each other all the time. __________
- The books in my library is the best I have ever read. __________
- Everyone are going to the concert except me. __________
- My family are moving to California. __________
- The lake I told you about is right here. __________
- There is the newspapers I was supposed to deliver. __________
- That person is going to the mall; they hope to buy new pajamas. __________
- When are the movie going to start? __________
- My sister and brother cleans up after themselves. __________
- Some of the clothes is packed away in the attic. __________
Attributions
2.2: Subject-Verb Agreement is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Anonymous via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.
