Transcript File

Subject – Verb Agreement
Explained
A verb should agree with its subject in
number.
Earline attends College.
They attend college.
The number of the subject is not
changed by a phrase following the
subject.
The woman on the stairs is Senator
Hatch.
The women in the front row are
Cabinet officers.
The following indefinite pronouns are
singular: each, either, neither, one,
everyone, everybody, no one, nobody,
anyone, anybody, someone, somebody.
No one leaves early.
One of the guitar strings was broken.
Someone who likes apple juice
raids the refrigerator at night.
The following indefinite pronouns are
plural: several, few, both, many.
Several of the women are pilots.
A few in the crowd were rowdy.
The indefinite pronouns some, all, any,
most, and none may be either singular or
plural, depending on the word they refer
to.
Most of the day was gone.
Most of the cows were grazing.
Subjects joined by and usually take a
plural verb.
Helen and she like hiking.
Singular subjects joined by or or nor take
a singular verb.
Neither our phone nor our doorbell was
working.
When a singular subject and a plural
subject are joined by or or nor, the verb
agrees with the subject nearer the verb.
Either Tim or his aunts are planning the
activities for the beach party.
Neither the potatoes nor the roast is
done.
Words stating amount are usually singular.
Two years is a long time.
Fifteen dollars was the price.
However, when the amount is thought of
as individual pieces or parts, a plural verb
is used.
Two of the years were especially rainy.
Fifteen of the dollars were torn.
Ninety percent of the students are
present today.
The title of a work of art, literature, or
music, even when plural in form, takes a
singular verb.
Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes is an
exciting novel.
Some nouns, although plural in form, take
singular verbs.
Linguistics is the science of language.
New of the concert’s cancellation was
disappointing to the band members.