Tutor: Siti Mukaromah M.

Pd
Material: Subject Verb Agreement

Subject Verb Agreement

What is subject verb agreement?

Subjects and verbs must AGREE with one another in number (singular or plural).
Thus, if a subject is singular, its verb must also be singular; if a subject is plural, its
verb must also be plural.

A. THE RULES OF SUBJECT VERB AGREEMENT

1. In the present tense, nouns and verbs form plurals in opposite ways: nouns
ADD an s to the singular form; verbs REMOVE the s from the plural form.
2. These agreement rules do not apply to verbs used in the simple past tense
without any helping verbs.
3. The agreement rules do, however, apply to the following helping verbs when
they are used with a main verb: is-are, was-were, has-have. BUT The
agreement rules do not apply to has-have when used as the SECOND
helping verb in a pair.
4. They do NOT apply to any other helping verbs, such as can, could, shall,
should, may, might, will, would, must.
5. The subject-verb agreement rules apply to all personal pronouns except I and
you, which, although SINGULAR, require PLURAL forms of verbs.
B. COMPOUND SUBJECT

The word “compound” means “made up of two or more parts.” Two or more
words can be compounded or linked by joining them with any of three words: and,
or, and nor

Here are some examples of compounding:

Apples and apples, Oranges and oranges

Dog , cat, or bird.

Example : The boy and the girl write a letter.

Although each part of the compound subject is singular (the boy and the girl),
taken together (joined by and), each one becomes a part of a plural structure and,
therefore, must take a plural verb (see) to agree in the sentence.

Look at the sentences:

1) The boy or the girls writes a letter.

2) The boys or the girl writes a letter.

How if one part of the compound subject is singular and the other part is plural?

1. If the individual parts of the compound subject are joined by and, always use
a plural verb.
Example :
The boysand the girl write a letter.
The boy and the girls write a letter.
2. If the individual parts of the compound subject are joined by or or nor, use
the verb form (singular or plural) which will agree with the subject closer to
the verb.
 Example :
The boy or the girls write a letter (girls write)
The boys or the girl writes a letter (girl writes)
The boys, the girls or the young writes a letter (young writes)

C. GROUP NOUNS
1. Some nouns which name groups can be either singular or plural depending
upon their meaning in individual sentences. Such as:

Group, club, jury, team, family,

army, government, company

Example :

The clubis meeting today (club is singular)

2. If, on the other hand, we are actually referring to the individuals within the
group, then we consider the noun plural. In this case, we use a plural verb.

Example :

The twins are singing (twins = two person)

3. Of course group nouns, like other nouns, can also appear in plural forms
(with an s).

Such as :
Groups, clubs, juries, teams, families, armies,
governments.

4. When used in the plural form, group nouns mean MORE THAN ONE
GROUP. Thus, it uses a plural verb.
 Example :
The clubs are having a meeting today

D. PLURAL FORM/SINGULAR MEANING FORM

Some nouns are regularly plural in form, but singular in meaning.

Such as:
News, measles, mumps

Example :
The news looks good today
Generally measles lasts about two weeks.

Another group of plural form nouns end in –ics.

Such as: Mathematics, linguistics, economics

Examples :
a. Linguisticis my favorite subject
b. Linguisticshas easy material
The difficulty is that some indefinite pronouns sound plural when they are
really singular.

As subjects, the following indefinite pronouns ALWAYS take singular verbs.

Look at them closely.

Examples :
a. Anybody has different interpretation
b. Everything is ok
c. Nothing is impossible

However, the following indefinite pronouns ALWAYS take plural verbs.

Both few many several others

Example :
a. A few are not coming at all.
b. Many have answered the invitation for Friday evening.
PRACTICE1
Underline the correct verb in the parentheses
1. The boy and the girl (dances / dance)
2. One of the children who (play/plays) soccer so very well is sitting on the
sidelines
3. Everyone who bought stocks last year (has/have) hoped to see an increase in
their value.
4. The team (have/has) turned in their uniforms for the season.
5. Everyone these days (knows/know) that people can’t really get warts by
touching a toad.
6. Even though the students like the class, a few (thinks/think) that it is too
complicated.
7. Each of the men (were/was) given ten minutes to speak to the president of
the company.
8. Beyond the river (is/are) a dress store and a shoes store.
9. My entire supply of checks (was/were) missing.
10.Neither of the corporation(has/have) received the necessary stayed charter
yet.
11.Physics (is/are) taken by many students to complete their science
requirement.
12.The professor or the students (walks /walk) the halls.
13.Everybody (understand / understands) subject verb agreement.
14.The student, though she had lots of problems in other schools, (find / finds)
her new class easy.
15.The student who (work / works) hard will success.