Grammar
Subject-Verb Agreement
Subject-verb agreement means the subject and verb in a sentence must both be singular or both be plural.
Basic Rule
| Subject | Verb |
|---|---|
| Singular (he, she, it) | Singular verb (writes, runs, is) |
| Plural (they, we) | Plural verb (write, run, are) |
Common Tricky Cases
Words between subject and verb:
- ❌ "The list of items are long."
- ✓ "The list of items is long." (list = singular)
Compound subjects with "and":
- ✓ "The professor and the student are meeting."
Either/or, neither/nor:
- ✓ "Neither the students nor the teacher was prepared." (verb matches closest subject)
Collective nouns:
- ✓ "The team is winning." (group acting as one)
- ✓ "The team are arguing." (individuals within group)
Examples
Indefinite pronouns (each, everyone, nobody):
- ❌ "Everyone have their books."
- ✓ "Everyone has their books."
Inverted sentences:
- ❌ "There is many reasons."
- ✓ "There are many reasons."
When in doubt, identify the true subject and ignore phrases between it and the verb.
Quick Tip
Mentally remove prepositional phrases to find the real subject: "The box [of chocolates] is empty."