Subject – Verb Agreement

Aytekin Aliyeva

When a subject has two or more items joined by and, we usually use a plural verb.

But...

Plural subjects that function as a single unit take a singular verb.

A compound subject joined by and is plural and must have a plural verb.

When I is one of the two subjects connected by either/or or neither/nor, put it second and follow it with the singular verb am.

If one subject is singular and one plural and are connected by the words or, nor, neither/nor, either/or, and not only/but also, the verb will agree with the nearest subject.

Hard-to-find subjects.

Some subjects can be harder to find than others. Subjects that come after the verb are especially tricky.

Ignore intervening phrases.

Disregard words or phrases that come between the subject and the verb. It is the subject that determines whether verb is singular or plural and the subject is main noun, not a prepositional phrase.

When the pronoun who, that, or which is the subject of a verb in the middle of the sentence. The pronouns who, that, and which become singular or plural according to the noun directly in front of them.

Sometimes the subject is separated from the verb by words such as along with, as well as, besides, or not. Ignore these expressions when determining whether to use a singular or plural verb.

When the subject is a gerund, an infinitive or a clause…

Words that indicate portions— percent, fraction, part, majority, some, all, none, remainder, and so on.

A collective noun can take either a singular or a plural verb.

Subjects that are singular in meaning but plural in form require a singular verb.

1. Fields of study that end in –ics2. Certain illnesses that end in –s3. Arithmetic expressions4. Games5. Names and titles of movies, books etc.6. Expressions of time, money, and distance7. The word news.

References1. Betty Schrampfer Azar, Understanding and Using English Grammar,

III Edition, Chapter 62. Martin Hewings, Advanced Grammar in Use, II Edition, Units: 40, 41,

423. George Yule, Oxford Practice Grammar (Advanced), Unit 14. Jane Straus, The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation, Grammar,

Subject-Verb Agreement5. Laurie Rozakis, English Grammar for the Utterly Confused, Chapter 56. Loai Breigheith, English Language Grammar , Form and Function,

Characteristics of the Subject 7. Louis George Alexander, Longman English Grammar, Quantity,

Distributives8. John Eastwood, Oxford Practice Grammar, II Edition, Unit 79,

Agreement9. Sidney Greenbaum, The Oxford English Grammar, Unit 5, The

Grammar of Phrases