by Sentenceworks
Subject-Verb Agreement
The verb in a sentence should always agree with the subject (what the sentence is about. In English, the reader cannot understand who is doing what, and when, in the sentence if the verb and subject don't agree.With Singular or Uncountable Subjects
If the subject of a sentence is singular (or uncountable), then the verb which modifies it must also be singular.
Incorrect: If he want to obtain the best education for himself, he first need to decide on his area of interest.
Both the verbs, “want” and “need”, do not agree with “he”. An “s” should be added to the end of both verbs: wants, needs.
Incorrect: Inferior marketing strategy result in a waste of time and money, as well as a loss of exposure.
The verb, “result”, does not agree with the subject of the sentence, “strategy”. “Result” should be written in third-person, singular: results.
Singular Subjects and Verbs
If the subject of the sentence is plural, the verb which modifies it must also be plural.
Incorrect: If they wants to obtain the best education for themselves, they first needs to decide on their areas of interest.
Both the verbs, “wants” and “needs”, do not agree with “they”. The “s” should be removed from the end of both verbs.
Incorrect: Inferior marketing strategies results in a waste of time and money, as well as a loss of exposure.
The verb, “results”, does not agree with the subject of the sentence, “strategies”. “Results” should be written in third-person plural: result.
Singular or Uncountable Subject + “Were”
If the verb of the sentence is “were”, which is plural, the subject of the sentence must also be plural.
Incorrect: Inferior marketing strategy were a waste of time and money, as well as a loss of exposure.
The verb, “were”, does not agree with the subject of the sentence, “strategy”. “Were” should be written in third-person, singular: was. Alternatively, the subject could be pluralized: strategies.
Singular or Uncountable Subject + “There Are”
If the subject of the sentence is singular (or uncountable), the verbwhich modifies it must also be singular, and cannot use “there are”.
Incorrect: There are a lot of food in the car; can you help me carry it into the house?
The verb, “there are”, does not agree with the subject, “food”, which is an uncountable noun. The verb could be changed to “there is”, or the subject could be changed to an plural noun: There are many bags of food in the car; can you help me carry them into the house?
Singular or Uncountable Subject and Verb Agreement: “are”
A singular subject requires a singular verb to modify it. Uncountable nouns are also considered to be singular subjects. Some examples of uncountable nouns are sand, cheese, tea, equipment, information, knowledge, and work. The verb “are” is a plural form of “to be”; “is” is singular.
Incorrect: Blue cheese are considered a delicacy.
Here, “blue cheese” is used as an uncountable noun, so it requires a singular verb; “are” should be changed to “is”.
Correct: Blue cheeses are considered a delicacy.
Here, “blue cheeses” is a plural subject, so the plural verb “are” is correct.
Subject and Verb Agreement: “couple” or “pair” + “were”
When used as nouns, the words “couple” and “pair” are singular; look for an article (the, a, an) modifying the word. When using these nouns as a subject, the verb should be singular, because it modifies “couple” or “pair”. The verb “were” is a plural form of “to be”; “was” is singular.
Incorrect: There were already a couple sitting at my favourite table in the cafe.
Because “couple” is being used as a singular noun (note the article “a”), the verb should be changed from “were” to “was”.
Incorrect: Where did the scissors go? There were a pair right here, just a minute ago.
The subject of the second sentence, “a pair”, is singular. The verb in the second sentence should be changed to “was”: ...there was a pair right here...
Correct: There were three pairs of scissors right here, just a minute ago.
In this sentence, “pairs” is plural, so the verb “were” is correctly used.
Correct: There were a couple of pairs of scissors right here, just a minute ago.
This sentence uses the idiom “a couple of something”. “Couple” is being used like an adjective to describe the number of pairs of scissors, so the verb should be plural.
Subject and Verb Agreement: “couple” or “pair” + “are”
The verb “are” is a plural form of “to be”; “is” is singular.
Incorrect: Darn! There are already a couple sitting at my favourite table in the cafe.
Because “couple” is being used as a singular noun (note the article “a”), the verb should be changed from “are” to “is”.
Incorrect: Where are the pair of scissors?
In this sentence, the subject is “the pair”; “scissors is being used like an adjective to describe “pair”. The verb “are” should be changed to agree with the singular subject “pair”: Where is the pair of scissors?
Correct: Where are the pairs of scissors?
“Pairs” is plural, so “are” is correct in this sentence.
Singular Subject + “Have”
The verb “have” is a plural form of “to have”; “has” is singular.
Incorrect: Mark have succumbed to the ‘flu.
“Mark” is a singular subject, so the verb should be changed to “has”.
Incorrect: Have there ever been a time when they needed to work with a tutor?
In this sentence, the subject is “a time”; the verb “have” should agree with the subject, not with “they”. The sentence should be re-written: Has there ever been a time when they needed to work with a tutor?
Plural Subject + “There Is”
If the subject of the sentence is plural, the verb which modifies it must also be plural, and cannot use “there is”.
Incorrect: There is many bags of food in the car; can you help me carry them into the house?
The verb, “there is”, does not agree with the subject, “bags”. The verb could be changed to “there are”, or the subject could be changed to an uncountable noun: There is a lot of food in the car; can you help me carry it into the house?
Plural Subjects + “Was”
If the verb of the sentence is “was”, which is singular, the subject of the sentence must also be singular.
Incorrect: The inferior marketing strategies was a waste of time and money, as well as a loss of exposure.
The verb, “was”, does not agree with the subject, “strategies”. The subject could be changed to the singular (strategy), or the verb could be changed to “were”.
“Is” with Plural Subject
A list of items – even if each item is singular – creates a plural subject. A plural subject (a subject with two or more items; look for the word “and”) requires a plural verb to modify it. Generally, if there is an “and” in the subject, use “are” as the verb.
Incorrect: My boss and his wife is coming for dinner.
There are two people in the plural subject (notice the “and”), so the verb should be changed to “are”: My boss and his wife are coming for dinner.
Incorrect: Tomatoes and cucumbers is fruit.
Even though “fruit” is used as an uncountable noun in this sentence, the verb “is” refers to “tomatoes and cucumbers”. The verb should be changed to “are”.
Verb Ending with “s” and Plural Subject
Most plural verbs do not end in “s”.
Incorrect: Financial responsibility and familial obligation weighs heavily on the shoulders of most parents.
The subject of the sentence, “financial responsibility and familial obligation” is plural (note the word “and”); the verb “weighs” should be changed to the plural: weigh.
Incorrect: In the coniferous forest lives pine, spruce and fir trees.
The plural subject of the sentence, “pine, spruce and fir trees” requires a plural verb to modify it. The verb should be changed from “lives” to “live”.
“Neither...Nor” + “Was”
If you use “neither...nor” as part of a subject which is referring to more than two things, the subject of the sentence is plural. The plural subject requires a plural verb to modify it. The verb “was” is a singular form of “to be”; “were” is plural.
Incorrect: Neither the fish nor the water lilies was healthy due to the polluted water.
Here, both “fish” and “water lilies” are plural, so “was” should be changed to “were”.
Incorrect: Neither the students nor the staff was willing to brave the storm to attend school.
“Students” is plural, which makes the subject plural. “Was” should be changed to “were”: Neither the students nor the staff were willing...
Correct: Neither the blue shirt nor the red shirt was clean enough to wear.
This subject is considered to be singular, so “was” is correctly used.
Plural Subject + “Has”
When the subject of a sentence is made up of a list of things, the subject is considered to be plural, even if each item in the list is singular. The verb “has” is a singular form of “to have”; “have” is plural.
Incorrect: Ben and Mark has succumbed to the ‘flu.
“Ben and Mark” is a plural subject, so the verb should be changed to “have”: Ben and Mark have succumbed to the ‘flu.
Correct: Her new hairstyle has made her the talk of the office, while her new dress has made her the victim of gossip.
Because “her new hairstyle” and “her new dress” are in separate clauses, the verb “has” is correct.
Pronouns and Verbs
The pronoun of a sentence must be in agreement with the verb which modifies it. For instance, if the pronoun is third person singular, the verb must be in third person singular. Clearly identify the pronoun (words like I, you, he, we, they) and the verb (action word), and ensure they agree.
Incorrect: It was a good time when we go shopping.
The verb, “go”, does not agree with the pronoun, “we” (nor does it agree with the past tense verb, “was”). The verb should be changed to “went”.
Incorrect: I wishes I could have some time off work.
The pronoun, “I”, does not agree with the verb, “wishes”. The verb should be changed to first person singular, “wish”.
Exceptions:
In dialogue, one may deliberately use pronoun/verb disagreement to indicate a very young or an uneducated speaker.
Correct: “I wants a cookie wif my lunch,” said the small boy.
When Using Plural Qualifiers
When a plural quantifier is used in the subject of a sentence, the verb which modifies the subject must also be in the plural. Plural quantifiers are expressions like the majority/minority of…, half/one quarter of…. most, a number/lot of…, some (of…), none of…, and a good deal of….
Incorrect: A few of the people was going to the rock concert on Saturday night.
The verb, “was”, does not agree with the plural quantifier, “a few of”. The verb should be changed to “were”.
Incorrect: The survey found that one-eighth of the residents does not support the mayor’s political views.
The verb, “does”, does not agree with the plural quantifier, “one-eighth of”. The verb should be changed to “do”.
With Correlative Conjunctions in Subject
When using a correlative conjunction (“neither…nor”, “either…or”, “not only…but also, etc.), the final noun determines the form of the modifying verb. If the final noun is singular, the verb must be singular; if the final noun is plural, the verb must be plural. N.B: If the correlative conjunction includes the word “and”, the subject is necessarily plural, so the verb should also be plural.
Incorrect: Neither the teacher nor the students likes the new desks.
The verb “likes” modifies the subject (the teacher and the students). However, the final noun in the subject is “students”, so the verb should be plural: like.
Incorrect: It is not the candles but the skull which are the focus of this still-life painting.
“Candles” is plural but the second noun, “skull”, is the noun which the verb must modify. The verb should be changed from “are” to “is”: It is not the candles but the skull which is the focus of this still-life painting.
Correct: Both Anna and her husband like to ski.
The correlative conjunction “both…and” creates a plural subject, so this sentence is correct.
Subject/Verb Agreement in Question Tag
A question tag is one or two words which changes a statement into a question, such as “don’t you?” and “right?”. The verb in the question tag must agree with the subject of the sentence, which is often found both in the main clause and as a pronoun in the question tag. Let’s look at this sentence: Mary likes chocolate, doesn’t she? The pronoun “she” refers to “Mary”, which is the subject of the sentence. The verb “doesn’t” has to agree with the subject, so we could look at either “Mary” or “she”.
Incorrect: You don’t want to write this essay today, does you?
The verb in the question tag, “does”, doesn’t agree with the subject “you”. The verb should be changed to “do”.
Incorrect: Michael has ordered the pizza already, haven’t he?
“Haven’t” should be changed to “hasn’t” so that it agrees with the subject “Michael” (and “he”).
Incorrect: They will be going to the party on Saturday, be they?
The verb “be” needs to agree with both “they” and “will be going” (which is in the future tense). The question tag could read “won’t they?” or “will they not?”