Subject Verb Agreement

Present Tense – Third Person

A singular subject – Verb takes ‘s’ or ‘es’

The student writes well.

A plural subject – Verb takes no ‘s’ or ‘es’

The students write well.
Two singular subjects connected by ‘ and’ – take a
plural verb.

The book and the bag is / are on the table.

Gundu and his friend knows / know about it.

Note : The two subjects refer to two different entities.

When a subject is followed by ‘ as well as’ / ‘with’ and
another noun – Verb agrees with the ‘first Subject’.

• He as well as his friends is / are responsible for this.

• His friends and his brother are responsible for this.

• The captain with his teammates works really hard.

When co-relative conjunctions ( either..or, neither…nor, not
only… but also) are used – verb agrees with the last subject.

• Either Rahul or his friend are / is responsible for this.

• Neither Rahul’s friends nor Rahul are / is responsible for this.

• Neither Rahul nor his friends is / are responsible for this.

When ‘neither’ is used in isolation to refer to two
person/ object – verb is singular.

Neither of them knows the answer.

When ‘each/ every / someone / no one/ anyone’
is the subject – verb is in singular

Everyone present here are /is a winner.

When the subject is ‘one of’ – it is followed by a plural
noun and a singular verb.

One of my favourite books are / is missing.

He is one of the famous writers of our time.

When there are more than one noun in the subject part –
identify the real subject and verb agrees with it.

The procedure to make travel bookings has / have been

changed.