Subject-verb Agreement

Subject-verb agreement is lesson number one in English grammar that everyone is familiar with; yet, unless certain nuances are understood and followed, it’s easy to make mistakes.

The basic point to remember is that the number of the subject determines the number of the verb; singular subjects take singular verbs, and plural subjects need plural verbs. The sentence

One in three women face harassment.

is incorrect, and should read

One in three women faces harassment.

Similarly,

A box of tapes was (not were) discovered in his car.

Many sentences carry a participial phrase at the beginning. First, identify the subject that the verb refers to.

Young and inexperienced, the tasks do not look formidable to her.

Here, the subject of the sentence is tasks, but the phrase ‘young and inexperienced’ doesn’t refer to it. When you restructure the sentence in either of the two ways shown below, you know which number you should use.

Young and inexperienced, she does not consider the tasks formidable.

The tasks do not look formidable to her, as she is young and inexperienced.

Many collective and indefinite nouns cause confusion, because they cannot be unambiguously termed singular or plural.

Is the word ‘majority’ to be used as a singular or as a plural? If ‘majority’ refers to a collection of individuals, then the word should be treated as plural.

The majority of the students feel satisfied with the arrangement.

If the word is used to describe a collective group, then consider it singular.

The majority in the audience was delirious.

If the rule is unclear, consider this: the ‘of the students’ following ‘majority’ makes it specific and quantifiable.

Indefinite pronouns are potential sources of confusion. Most of them take a singular verb, some are always plural, and a few may be either singular or plural.

The indefinite pronouns anyone, everyone, everybody, someone, no one, nobody are always singular and, therefore, require singular verbs.

Everyone has to study hard to get good marks.
Nobody has taken up this project yet.
Each of the students is responsible for completing his or her assigned work.
Neither of the contestants agreed to come out openly.

Some indefinite pronouns — such as all, some — are singular or plural, depending on what they’re referring to.

Some of the flowers are wilting. (Flowers are countable)
Some of the coffee was spilt. (Coffee is not countable)

All of the pie was eaten. (Pie is not countable)

Think of ‘none’ as ‘not one’. None can take either a singular or a plural verb, depending on the context. With collective nouns, use singular.

None in the crowd wants a fight.
But with count nouns, you can use either the singular or the plural.

None of you are right or None of you is right.

But ‘None of the students have done their homework’ sounds better with the plural verb ‘have’ because of its proximity to a plural noun.

None of the movies directed by Sridhar is interesting.
None but his most loyal supporters believe his story.

Phrases such as together with, as well as, and along with are not the same as and.

The teacher as well as her students is going on a picnic.
Sudha, along with the rest of the classmates, decides to participate in the festival.

The phrase introduced by ‘as well as’ or ‘along with’ will modify the earlier word (teacher in this case), but it does not compound the subjects (as the word ‘and’ would do).

The conjunction ‘or’ does not conjoin (as ‘and’ does). When ‘nor’ or ‘or’ is used, the subject closer to the verb determines the number of the verb. Whether the subject comes before or after the verb doesn’t matter; the proximity determines the number.

Either my mother or my sisters are going on a vacation.
Neither my friends nor my neighbor is going to the movie.
Are either my sisters or my mother repentent?
Is either my mother or my sisters apologetic?