Subject Verb Agreement Lesson

1. LESSON 1
SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT

2. ● identify the subject and verb in a sentence; and
● compose grammatically correct sentences
following the rules of subject-verb agreement.

3. Why should a verb agree with its subject in a sentence?

4. What do you notice about the two sentences?

5. A word the describes or stands for one person, place, thing,
or idea is singular. A word that describes or stands for
more than one person, place, thing, or idea is plural.
SINGULAR
is, was, has
Review
PLURAL
are, were, have

6. The subject of a sentence and its verb must agree with one
another in number. A singular subject requires a singular
verb; a plural subject requires a plural verb.
Subject-Verb Agreement

7. 1. A singular subject requires a singular verb. A plural
subject requires a plural verb.
Examples:
Idina sings beautifully.
Students enjoy extracurricular activities.

8. There are exceptions to this rule. The pronouns I and you
follow a different rule.
Examples:
I hate spiders.
You know a lot of fellow students.

9. 2. Compound subjects connected by and use a plural
verb.
Example:
Chad and Rachel are transferring to another school.

10. 3. Consider the subject closer to the verb of two or more
subjects joined by or or nor.
Example:
Either her colleagues or her boss leads the opening.

11. 4. If there is a phrase that comes between the subject
and the verb, consider the subject and not the noun or
pronoun in the phrase.
Example:
The teacher, as well as her students, walks to the library.

12. 5. Each, each one, either, neither, everyone, everybody,
anybody, anyone, nobody, somebody, someone, and no one
are all singular and require a singular verb.
Example:
Nobody remembers who led the school hymn last week.

13. 6. Words such as mathematics, measles, physics, news,
and the like are nouns that end with s but are not
considered plural. These nouns require singular verbs.
Example:
Physics is a difficult subject.

14. 7. Words such as scissors, tweezers, trousers, shears, and
the like are always considered plural.
Example:
My shorts are made of pure cotton.

15. 8. The words here and there are not subjects. When a
sentence starts with these words, the subject is placed
after the verb.
Example:
There are many essays on student workload.

16. 9. Team, committee, class, family and the like are
collective nouns. In considering collective nouns as
either singular or plural, you have to analyze how the
verbs are used. If the group acts as one doing the same
action, the subject is singular; if the group acts
individually doing different things, the subject is plural.

17. Examples:
The team practices at night.
The class sign up for various clubs.

18. Drills
Read the following sentences and encircle the
subject. Then, underline the correct form of the verb
that agrees with it.
1. His father, below his window, (dig, digs) in the gravelly
ground.
2. The speaker (see, sees) the father bending among the
flowers.
3. The father’s boot (nestle, nestles) on the shaft of the
spade.

19. Drills
4. The shaft (rest, rests) against his father’s knee.
5. The speaker (boast, boasts) that his grandfather was a
champion turf cutter.
6. He remembers that his grandfather, in the midst of
cutting, (drink, drinks) a bottle of milk in one gulp.
7. His grandfather (straighten, straightens) up to drink the
milk and then bends down again immediately to dig.

20. Drills
8. He watches as his grandfather (nick, nicks) and slices at
the sod.
9. The speaker feels the roots of peat (awake, awakes) in
his head.
10.The speaker says that he (dig, digs) with his pen.

21. Drills
Determine whether correct subject-verb agreement is
employed in the following sentences. Write NE if the
sentence does not have an error. Otherwise, supply the
correct form of the underlined verb.
____ 1. The wartime tragedies is remembered by Mr. Frank.
____ 2. He nearly refuses to take the diary of Anne with him.
____ 3. Anne’s father was forced out of business by the
Nazis.

22. Drills
____ 4. Peter was teased by Anne because he was shy and
reserved.
____ 5. Miep get the ration books on the other side of town.
____ 6. They knows how to play chess.
____ 7. My friends paint stencil designs.
____ 8. Rocky know how to play chess.
____ 9. Karl and Jack is here.
____ 10. Measles are a contagious disease.

23. Values Integration
Subjects and verbs should agree in order to make a
sentence sensible and clear. When the subject and
the verb in the sentence do not agree, this may cause
confusion to the readers. In life, there are bound to
be times when you do not agree with someone. When
this happens, what do you think you should do?

24. Synthesis
Prepare a two-part tableau and create a 3-sentence
description of the scenario depicted following the correct
subject-verb agreement. Choose from the following
situations:
a. Trapped in the elevator
b. Running late for class
c. Our favorite spot in school
d. At the amusement park
Synthesis Activity

25. Assignment
Cut out from a newspaper or get from the Internet a
copy of a feature article that is appealing to you. Choose
and write down 10 sentences from the article and
identify the subject and verb in it. Try to spot any
subject-verb agreement error!