This document discusses the rules of subject-verb agreement, noting that a verb must agree with its subject in number, either singular or plural. It provides examples of singular and plural nouns, pronouns, and verbs, and gives guidance for ensuring subject-verb agreement when a prepositional phrase separates the subject and verb. Learning subject-verb agreement can help a student communicate more clearly and accurately in both speaking and writing.
3. The number of a word can be
either singular or plural. Singular
words indicate one. Plural words
indicate more than one. Only
nouns, pronouns, and verbs have
number.
4. Recognizing the Number of Nouns and
Pronouns
Most nouns are made plural by adding –s or –es to
the singular form (friends and boxes). Some nouns
become plural in other ways (knives and mice).
Pronouns have different forms to indicate singular
and plural. For examples, I, he, she, it, and this are
singular. We, they, and these are plural. You, who,
and some are either singular or plural.
5. Recognizing the Number of Verbs
Like nouns, verbs have singular and plural forms.
Problems involving the number of verbs normally
involve the third-person forms in the present tense
(she wants, they want) and certain forms of the verb
be (I, am; he is or was; we are or were).
6. Singular and Plural Verbs in the Present Tense
Singular Plural
The girl runs. The girls run.
The boy plays. The boys play.
I am happy. We are happy.
This was great! Those were great!
7. Making Verbs Agree with Singular and Plural Subjects
To check for agreement between a subject and a verb, begin by determining the number of the subject.
Then, make sure the verb has the same number.
A singular subject must have a singular verb. Aplural subject must havea plural verb.
8. In the example below, the subjects are underlined once and the verbs are underlined twice.
SingularSubject and Verb
Jeff always has a good time at the beach.
She was here earlier today.
A picnic is being planned for Independence Day.
Plural Subject and Verb
The surfers always have a good time at the beach.
They were here earlier today.
Picnics are being planned for Independence Day.
9. In the first example below, the subject is arrival, not firemen, which is the object of the preposition of. Because
arrival is singular, the plural verb have caused cannot agree with it.
INCORRECT The arrival of the firemen have caused much excitement at the picnic.
CORRECT The arrival of the firemen has caused much excitement at the picnic.
In the second example below, the subject is the plural cheers, not crowd; therefore, it takes the plural verb were
heard.
INCORRECT The cheers of the crowd was heard several blocks away.
CORRECT The cheers of the crowd were heard several blocks away.
A prepositional phrase that comes between a subject and its verb does not affect subject-verb agreement.
10. Instruction: On your paper, indicate whether each of the following words is singular or
plural.
Example: children – plural
1. Turkey
2. Thanksgiving
3. It
4. Veteran
5. Shamrocks
6. Fireworks
11. 7. Street fair
8. Geese
9. They
10. I
11. Festivals
12. We
13 Women
14. Flag
12. On your paper, write the verb from the choices in parentheses that agrees in number with
the pronoun. After each answer, write whether the verb is singular or plural.
Example: they (meets, meet)
Answer: meet (plural)
1. this (is, are)
2. he (votes, vote)
3. I (is, am)
4. she (gives, give)
5. we (is, are)
13. 6. it (bark, barks)
7. they (was, were)
8. we (has, have)
9. Those (has been, have been)
10. they (counts, count)
14. Direction: Answer the question
sincerely.
How helpful can learning the
subject-verb agreement in your
life as a student?
