Purpose
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to correctly match verbs to their subjects, including in genuinely tricky sentence structures.Lesson Explanation
The basic rule of subject-verb agreement is simple: singular subjects take singular verbs, plural subjects take plural verbs. The genuine difficulty lies in correctly identifying the true subject in more complex sentences. A frequent source of error: words or phrases between the subject and verb do not change the agreement, even when a nearby noun seems to disagree: “The box of chocolates is on the table.” (The subject is “box,” singular, not “chocolates” — the prepositional phrase “of chocolates,” from Part 1, Lesson 5, doesn’t change the verb.) Collective nouns (Part 1, Lesson 1) generally take a singular verb in standard American usage: “The team is winning.” Compound subjects joined by “and” typically take a plural verb: “Tom and Jerry are friends.” But compound subjects joined by “or” or “nor” agree with the closer subject: “Neither the teacher nor the students are ready” (agrees with “students,” the closer element) versus “Neither the students nor the teacher is ready” (agrees with “teacher”). Indefinite pronouns like “everyone, everybody, someone, nobody, each” are genuinely always singular, even though they can feel logically plural: “Everyone is here” (not “are”), “Each of the students has a book” (not “have” — the subject is “each,” not “students,” which is again just a prepositional-phrase object, exactly as in the box-of-chocolates example above).Practice Questions
1. What is the basic rule of subject-verb agreement?
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Singular subjects take singular verbs; plural subjects take plural verbs.2. In “The box of chocolates is on the table,” what is the true subject?
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“Box” (singular), not “chocolates.”3. Why doesn’t “chocolates” affect the verb in that sentence?
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Because it is the object of a prepositional phrase, not the subject.4. Do collective nouns generally take a singular or plural verb in standard American usage?
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Singular.5. Do compound subjects joined by “and” typically take a singular or plural verb?
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Plural.6. Write “Tom and Jerry are friends” — why is “are” correct here?
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Because the compound subject joined by “and” is plural.7. With compound subjects joined by “or” or “nor,” which subject does the verb agree with?
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The closer subject.8. Write “Neither the students nor the teacher ___ ready,” choosing the correct verb.
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Is (agreeing with “teacher,” the closer subject).9. Are indefinite pronouns like “everyone” and “everybody” singular or plural?
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Singular, always.10. Write “Everyone ___ here,” choosing the correct verb.
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Is.11. In “Each of the students has a book,” what is the true subject?
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“Each,” not “students.”12. Why is “has,” not “have,” correct in that sentence?