Grammar Review for Business Writing

A. Subject – Verb Agreement

In the workplace, you want to present a professional image. Your outfit or suit says something
about you when meeting face-to-face, and your writing represents you in your absence.
Grammatical mistakes in your writing or even in speaking make a negative impression on
coworkers, clients, and potential employers.
Agreement in speech and in writing refers to the proper grammatical match between words
and phrases. Parts of sentences must agree, or correspond with other parts, in number, person,
case, and gender.

 Number. All parts must match in singular or plural forms.

 Person. All parts must match in first person (I), second person (you), or third person (he,
she, it, they) forms.
 Case. All parts must match in subjective (I, you, he, she, it, they, we), objective (me, her,
him, them, us), or possessive (my, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, their, theirs, our,
ours) forms. For more information on pronoun case agreement, see Section 1.5.1
“Pronoun Agreement”.
 Gender. All parts must match in male or female forms.

Subject-verb agreement describes the proper match between subjects and verbs.
1. The words each, each one, everyone, everybody, anyone, anybody, nobody,
somebody, someone, and no one are singular and require a singular verb.
 Each of the participants was willing to be recorded.
 Every one of you has to contribute something.
 No one was available to meet with me at the preferred times.

2. A collective noun is counted as one, they are singular and require a singular verb. Some
commonly used collective nouns are group, team, army, flock, family, and class.
 The couple is getting married next Sunday.
 The couple are arguing with each other.
With a collective noun, use either a singular or a plural verb, depending on whether you
want to emphasize the single group or its individual members:

 Half of my family lives in Canada.

 All of the class is here.
 Ten percent of the population is bilingual.
 Note: In contrast with American English, British English generally treats collective nouns
as plurals.

3. Depending on the context, the word number can be singular or plural. If it is used in
combination with the indefinite article a, it should generally appear with a plural verb,
whereas When used with the definite article the, however, number usually requires a
singular verb.
 A number of schools are closed today.
 The number of senior high schools is increasing these days.

4. Some nouns appear to be plural but are singular and take singular verbs, for example

'gymnastics', 'news', 'physics', 'politics', etc.
 The latest news is reassuring.
 Gymnastics is fun to watch.

5. Sometimes units of time, distance, money, and so on appear plural but are in fact
functioning as a singular amount. In such cases, a singular verb is required.
 Five minutes is not enough time.
 Six miles is too far.
 Seven hundred dollars is a lot of money to lose gambling.

6. With fractions, percentages and indefinite quantifiers (e.g., all, few, many, much, some),
the verb agrees with the preceding noun or clause:

With a singular or non-count noun or clause, use a singular verb:

 One-third of this article is taken up with statistical analysis.
 Much of the book seems relevant to this study.
 Half of what he writes is undocumented.
With a plural noun, use a plural verb:
 One-third of the students have graduated degrees.
 Many researchers depend on grants from industry.
 Half of his articles are peer-reviewed.

When majority/minority mean an unspecified number more or less than 50%, use a

singular verb:
 The majority holds no strong views.
 A small minority indicates it supports the proposal.

When majority/minority mean a specific percentage, you may use either a singular or a

plural verb:
  A 75% majority have/has voted against the measure.
 A 10% minority are/is opposed to the measure.
When majority/minority refers to a specified set of persons, use a plural verb:
 A majority of Canadians have voted for change.
 A minority of the students are willing to pay more.

7. The intervening word or phrase functions as a modifier that modifies the preceding
subject. Examples of the intervening word or phrase include: including, like, plus, with,
accompanied by, along with, as well as, in addition to, one of, and together with. The
intervening word or phrase does not mean the same as and and so does not compound
the subject and make it plural. The subject still determines whether the verb is singular
or plural in order to adhere to the subject-verb agreement.
 The girl like her elder sister has (not have) plump rosy cheeks. 
 Her computer plus her handbag was stolen from her car.
 The woman with her daughter is selling flowers.
 Mary, accompanied by her brother, goes (not go) to the movies at the weekend.
 The farmhouse, including the tractor and a pickup, was (not were) damaged by
the storm.

8. Sometimes a subject appears to be plural when it is actually singular. 

 Hot dogs and cheeseburgers are my favorite foods.
 Spaghetti and meatballs is my favorite food. (the subject is a single dish and is
therefore singular)
 Sugar and eggs are needed for the recipe.
 My classmate and cousin is here. (same person)

9. The correlative conjunction pairs either/or and neither/nor create subject-verb

agreement challenges for many people. Compound subjects connected by either – or, or
neither nor the verb takes to the nearer subject; if the nearer subject is singular the verb
is singular but if the nearer subject is plural the verb is plural.
 Neither John nor the Smiths have arrived.
 Neither the Smiths nor John has arrived.
 Either the twins or Jason takes the furniture out of the garage

10. Adjectives preceded by “the” and used as plural nouns take a plural verb examples are:
the rich, the poor, the jobless, the unemployed, the deaf, the blind etc.
 The rich get richer.
 The poor face many hardships.
 The unemployed are losing hope.
 The adjective cannot be used without the article ‘the’ in these expressions. In some
cases, these expressions can have a singular meaning. Examples are: the accused, the
injured, the diseased etc.
 The deceased is survived by his wife.

11. Titles of books, movies, novels, and other similar works are treated as singular and take
a singular verb.
 The Burbs is a movie starring Tom Hanks.
 The Avengers is a 2012 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics
superhero team. 
 “Wild Horses” was a surprise hit song for the Rolling Stones.
12. Athletic teams, bands, and other groups that form collective names pose particular
problems with subject verb agreement. Most sports teams are plural: the Eagles,
Pirates, Cubs, Red Wings, Lakers, etc. For this reason, writers have taken to using plural
verbs with them.
 The Giants are looking strong this season.
 I think the Cubs have a chance to win their division.

Note: Some disagreement has arisen, however, about a handful of teams that have a
singular name, such as the Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, and Colorado Avalanche. Some
sports writers use plural verbs to maintain consistency: The Jazz are suddenly slumping.