Why can’t we all just get along? Subject-verb agreement

Jul 21st, 2008 | By John Roach | Category: Grammar

The Problem:

Your subjects and verbs don’t agree, throwing off your readers.

The Solution:

Track down your subject, track down your verb, and make sure they agree in number.

Subject-verb agreement is a basic rule in writing English. Even so, many writers get it wrong, especially if there is anything between the subject and the verb. Singular subjects take singular verbs; plural subjects take plural verbs.

Let’s look at two simple examples:
Singular:

John goes to school

Plural:

John and Jennifer go to school.

Here’s an easy way to keep 90% of subject-verb agreement issues at bay: Singular subjects don’t have an ’s’; Singular verbs do. Plural subjects have an ’s’, plural verbs don’t. Just remember that you only get one ’s’.

Let’s look at some edge cases where the rule breaks down.

Compound subjects

This is where your subject has two parts. John and Jennifer, the marketing department and I, An apple, an orange, and a pineapple. These all take plural verbs, because while each individual noun may be singular, together they form a plural subject.

But what about ‘Jeff or his friends’? Here we have a compound subject that has one singular part and one plural.

Luckily, this rule is easy: When you have a compound subject joined by ‘or’ (or ‘nor’), the verb agrees with whichever part is closest. So

“Jeff or his friends need to go to the store”

“His friends or Jeff needs to go to the store.”

Collective nouns

Collective nouns are nouns that look plural but are actually singular.

“The Board votes on it tomorrow”

“My family gets together every Christmas.

Sentences with something between the subject and the verb.

This is where most mistakes happen. Words or phrases between the subject and the verb do not affect the agreement.

My friend that has twelve cousins is coming into town today.

The women from the ad agency drop packages off from time to time.

In the two above cases, the nouns directly before the verbs are not the subjects; they are irrelevant as far as agreement rules are concerned.

There are a lot more rules concerning subject-verb agreement (such as how this sentence works), but they concern a small percentage of mistakes. By keeping the above handful of rules in mind, you’ll be correct upwards of 90% of the time. For the rest, maybe you hire a proofreader?

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