Subject-Verb Agreement

Abiding by the laws of SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT (SVA) is key to sounding like our colonizers! 🤡 On a more serious note, SVA is foundational to prescriptive English; without mastery of, or at least familiarity with, this topic, you will not be able to write proper academic and professional texts. In this module, you will learn (a) the different parts of speech, (b) verb tenses used in prescriptive English, and (c) the rules that encompass SVA.  

All parts of speech are essential for constructing a complete sentence, but the focus of SVA is primarily on Nouns and Pronouns (which function as the subject) and Verbs. This emphasis is necessary to accurately identify the subject, determine its number (singular or plural), and select the correct verb conjugation. 

Identifying the Subject

• The subject in a sentence or clause is the person or thing doing, performing, or controlling the action of the verb. For example:
  
  

• “The dog chased its tail.” (The noun dog is performing the action of the verb chase.)

•  “Mary reads a book every week.” (The proper noun Mary is performing the action of the verb read.)
  
  

• Objects on the other hand are the ones receiving the action (verb) in the sentence

Rules of Subject-Verb Agreement 

1. In the present tense, verbs agree with their subjects in NUMBER (singular/plural) and in PERSON (first, second, or third). The present tense ending –s (or –es) is used on a verb if the subject is THIRD PERSON SINGULAR. Otherwise, the verb takes NO ENDING.

• "He runs every morning."

• "I run every morning."
  
  

2. Make the verb agree with its subject, not with the word in between

• "High levels of pollution cause damage to the respiratory tract."
  The subject is levels, NOT pollution
  
  

3. With subjects joined with or, nor, either...or, or neither... nor, make the verb agree with the part of the subject NEARER to the verb. One exception to this rule is when using both... and in this case, we consider it as a plural subject. 

• "A driver’s license or credit card is required."

See, the term “driver’s license” was not used in making the verb agree with the sentence. Instead it was the term “credit card.”

• "Neither the lab assistant nor the students were able to download the information."

• "Both Mike and Daniel are coming with us."

4. Treat most indefinite pronouns as SINGULAR

• "Everybody who signed up for the snowboarding trip was taking lessons."

• "Everyone on the team supports the coach."

5. However, a few indefinite nouns such as ALL, ANY, NONE and SOME may be singular or plural DEPENDING on the noun or pronoun they refer to.

• "Some of our luggage was lost."

• "None of his advice makes sense."

6. Make the verb agree with its subject even when the subject follows the verb

• "There are surprisingly few children in our neighbourhood."

• "There were a social worker and a crew of twenty volunteers at the scene of the accident."

7. Words such as athletics, economics, measles and news are usually, despite their plural form

• "Statistics is among the most difficult courses in our program."

8. Titles of works, company names, and gerund phrases are SINGULAR

• "Lost Cities describes the discoveries of many ancient civilizations."

• "Delmonico Brothers specializes in organic produce and additive-free meats."

• "Running a marathon is a difficult but rewarding experience."

9. Treat collective nouns (e.g. team, audience, crowd, class, family) as SINGULAR unless the meaning is clearly plural 

SINGULAR | Collective nouns nearly always emphasize a group as a UNIT

• "The class respects the teacher."

• "The board of trustees meets in Denver twice a year."

PLURAL | Occasionally, a collective noun is treated as plural to draw attention to

the INDIVIDUAL members of the group

• ✖  INCORRECT: "The class are debating amongst themselves."

• ✔ CORRECT: "The class members are debating amongst themselves."

10. Uncountable nouns are grammatically singular. They must take singular forms of their verbs.

• ✖  INCORRECT: “Their behaviors are not good.”

• ✔ CORRECT: “Their behavior is not good.”