6.5: Subject-Verb Agreement

Subject-Verb Agreement

			Present Tense	Other Tenses
Singular	First Person	I	I like to teach.	I was in France last year. I have been to France
	Second Person	You	You are a good student, Mariam.	You were in France last year. You have been to France
	Third Person	he, she, it = the woman, the teacher, the table, the idea, the system, etc.	The judge decides the sentence. The nurse assists the doctor. The accountant does not calculate quickly.	The judge is deciding this week. The candidate has lost the election. The lawyer was asking for evidence.
Plural	First Person	We	We work well together	We have worked a lot.
	Second Person	you	Students, you have a lot of homework.	Students, you have made a lot of progress.
	Third Person	They	The nurses work a lot.	The nurses have worked a lot.

Rule 1. If the subject comes before a prepositional phrase, be sure to make the verb agree with the subject and not the noun in the prepositional phrase.

• The results of the research show that climate patterns are changing.
• The complaint from the students states that the teacher did not grade fairly.

Rule 2. Treat indefinite pronouns as singular subjects.

everybody anybody nobody

everyone anyone no one

everything anything nothing

• Everybody has a right to a good education.
• Nothing you say is going to change my mind.

Rule 3: When using a compound subject with or, nor, either/or and neither/nor, use the number of the closest noun or pronoun to determine the verb.

• The manager or his assistants organize the meeting.
• Neither the federal government nor individual states make laws that are unconstitutional.

Rule 4. In sentences beginning with here or there, the subject follows the verb.

• There are a lot of problems in the development of the plan.
• There is a problem with the factory’s management.
• Here are the key points from the lecture.

Rule 5. Use a singular verb with distances, periods of time, sums of money, etc., when these are considered as a single unit.

• Six hundred dollars is too much to pay for a cellphone.
• Five years is the minimum time required for residency.

Rule 6. Look at the noun AFTER phrases that show a portion to decide if it is singular or plural.

a lot of all of some of half of / a percentage of

• A lot of the difficulty is the result of inadequate funding.
• A lot of the problems are the result of inadequate funding.

• One half of the town was under water.
• A third of the people were being evacuated.

• All of the advice is useful.
• All of the tips are useful.

• Some of the information is confusing.
• Some of the messages are confusing.

Rule 7. Collective nouns such as staff, group, family, audience, and population can be considered singular OR plural depending on the writer’s intention.

• All of my family has arrived / have arrived.
• Most of the staff is / are here.

Rule 8. In subject relative (adjective) clauses, the verb must agree with the word the relative pronoun is describing.

• Cybersecurity is a major that has recently become more popular with students.
• New York City and Los Angeles, which offer a lot of interesting attractions for tourists, are expensive vacation destinations.

Rule 9. Non-count (mass) nouns take singular verbs. See A-3 for an important list of these nouns. advice information homework furniture knowledge

• The therapist’s advice is not always easy to follow.
• The climate has been changing over the last few decades.