Must-Know Rules for Subject – Verb Agreement

Subject – verb agreement is an important grammatical concept that refers to the consistency between the subject and the verb of a sentence. The subject of a sentence is the noun or pronoun that performs the action of the verb, while the verb is the word that describes the action or state of being. In order for a sentence to be grammatically correct, the subject and verb must agree in number, meaning that a singular subject must be paired with a singular verb, and a plural subject must be paired with a plural verb.

Contents

Rules for Subject – Verb Agreement

Rule 1: A verb agrees with its subject in number

Singular subjects take singular verbs:

The car stays in the garage.
The flower smells good.

There is an old saying: “Opposites attract.” The rule for singular and plural verbs is just the opposite of the rule for singular and plural nouns. Remember this when you match subjects and verbs. You might guess that staysand smells are plural verbs because they end in s. They aren’t. Both stays and smells are singular verbs.

Rule 2: The number of the subject (singular or plural) is not changed by words that come between the subject and the verb

For example:

One of the eggs is broken.

(Of the eggs is a prepositional phrase. The subject one and the verb is are both singular.) Mentally omit the prepositional phrase to make the subject verb-agreement easier to make.

Rule 3: Some subjects always take a singular verb even though the meaning may seem plural

These subjects always take singular verbs:

each, either, neither, one, no one, every one, someone, anyone, nobody, somebody, anybody, everybody

Someone in the game was (not were) hurt.
Neither of the men is (not are) working.

Rule 4: The following words may be singular or plural, depending upon their use in a sentence: some, any, all, most

Most of the news is good. (singular)
Most of the flowers were yellow. (plural)
All of the pizza was gone. (singular)
All of the children were late. (plural)

Rule 5: Subjects joined by “and” are plural. Subjects joined by “or” or “nor” take a verb that agrees with the last subject

Bob and George are leaving.
Neither Bob nor George is leaving.
Neither Bob nor his friends are leaving.

Rule 6: “There” and “here” are never subjects. In sentences that begin with these words, the subject is usually found later on in the sentence

There were five books on the shelf. (“were” agrees with the subject “books”)
Here is the report you wanted. (“is” agrees with subject “ report”)

Rule 7: Collective nouns may be singular or plural, depending on their use in the sentence

A collective noun is a noun used to name a whole group. Following are some common examples:

army, crowd, orchestra, audience, flock, public, class, group, swarm, club, herd, team, committee, jury, troop, United States

The orchestra is playing a hit song. (Orchestra is considered as one unit—singular.)
The orchestra were asked to give their musical backgrounds. (Orchestra is considered as separate individuals—plural)

Rule 8: Expressions of time, money, measurement, and weight are usually singular when the amount is considered one unit

For examples:

Five dollars is (not are) too much to ask.
Ten days is (not are) not nearly enough time.

On occasion, however these terms are used in the plural sense:

There were thirty minutes to countdown.

Rule 9: Some nouns, while plural in form, are actually singular in meaning

mumps, home economics, social studies economics, measles, calisthenics, statistics, civics, physics, gymnastics, phonics, news, acrobatics, aesthetics, thesis, mathematics