Basic Rules of Subject Verb Agreement

1. If you have a singular subject, you must use these verbs: is, was, has, does, or verbs
ending in s or es because these verbs are singular verb forms.

2. If you have a plural subject, you must use these verbs: are, were, have, do, or verbs
without s or es endings because these verbs are plural verb forms.

3. Any time you have the pronoun YOU as the subject of the sentence, you must use
the plural verb forms which are are, were, have, do or verbs without s or es endings.

Rules of Subject Verb Agreement

1. Two or more subjects joined by “and” are considered plural and takes the plural
or base form of the verb. (without an “s”.)
a. Mary and Joan play at the park.
b. Bob and his brothers walk to the store.

2. If the subject is modified by the words “each” or “every” that subject is singular
and it takes singular or -s form of the verb.
a. Every child is special.
b. Each plant needs proper amount of sunlight and water.

3. If compound subjects are joined by “or”, “nor” or “but” the verb must only agree
with the subject that is closer to it.
a. Either Bob or his brother plays basketball well.
b. Neither Bob nor his brothers play basketball well.

4. Titles of single entities (books, organizations, countries, etc.) are always singular.
a. The Grapes of Wrath takes a long time to read.
b. Harry Potter is an interesting novel.

5. A phrase or clause between subject and verb does not change the number of the
subject.
a. The mother duck with all her little ducklings walks in the backyard.
(prepositional phrase)
b. The women who went to the meeting were bored.
(dependent clause)
 6. Indefinite Pronouns as subjects
Some indefinite pronouns may be either singular or plural: with uncountable, use
singular; with countable, use plural.

Either SINGULAR or PLURAL: some, any, none, all, most.

Some of the sugar is on the floor.

(Sugar is uncountable; therefore, the sentence has a singular verb.)
Some of the marbles are on the floor.
(Marbles are countable; therefore, the sentence has a plural verb.)

7. When a collective noun, such as family, group, team committee, jury or class, is
the subject, it takes singular or s-form of the verb.
a. My family with all my cousins spends a night at the beach.
b. The jury has awarded custody to the grandmother.

8. A few nouns, such as economics, mumps, statistics, civics, measles or news end
“s” but are considered singular because if you take “s” away, the word will be
incomplete.
a. Economics is her favorite subject.
b. Gymnastic is his favorite sport.
c. Mathematics is the science of pure quantity

9. When the subject is a unit of measurement, time, distance, money, weight, take
a singular or s-form of the verb.
a. Ten pounds of chocolate is too much to eat at once.
b. Thirteen feet of kite string tangles very easily.
c. Three miles is too far to walk.

10.In a question or in a sentence that begins with “there” or “Where”, the verb will
often come before the subject.
a. Where is my sweater?
b. There are my sweaters.

11.When there is one subject and more that one verb, the verbs throughout the
sentence must agree with the subject.
a. Interviews are one way to collect data and allow researchers to gain an in-depth
understanding of participants.
b. An assumption something that is generally accepted as true and is an important
consideration when conducting a study.
12.Gerund (“ing” words) can be subjects and follow all the
same rules.
a. Walking is a good form of exercise.
b. Singing and dancing are my favorite hobbies.

13. When using who, that or which, you must look to the noun that these relative
pronoun are referring to in order to determine whether the subject is singular or
plural.
a. The girls who eat cake are happy.
b. The girl who eats cake is happy.

14.Inverted subjects must agree with the verb.

a. Waiter, there is a fly in my soup.
b. There are four flies in my soup.
c. How are the relatives taking the bad news?

15.The expression the number of ___________________, is followed by a singular

verb.
a. The number of volunteers grows each year.
b. The number of people we need to hire is thirteen.

16.The expression a number of ___________________, is followed by plural verb.

a. A number of people grow tomatoes each summer.
A number of people have written in about this subject.