Subject-Verb Agreement

Learning Objectives

  • Identify and use verbs to match the subject of a sentence

Tense Agreement

The basic idea behind sentence agreement is pretty simple: all the parts of your sentence should match (or agree). Verbs need to agree with their subjects in number (singular or plural) and in person (first, second, or third).

Singular subjects take singular verbs, and plural subjects take plural verbs.

Examples: singular Subject-verb agreement

  • I really am (first-person singular) vs. We really are (first-person plural).
  • The boy sings (third-person singular) vs. The boys sing (third-person plural).

When a sentence has a compound subject (more than one subject joined by and), the verb should be plural.

Example: Compound Subject-verb agreement

  • A pencil, a backpack, and a notebook were issued to each student.

Subjects That May Be Confusing

Some sentences can be tricky because the true subject isn’t always obvious.

Examples: non-obvious subjects

  • The direction of the three plays is the focus of my talk.

    • The subject is direction, not plays, so the verb must be singular (is).

  • The professor, who is an amazing teacher and has written tons of books, seems to have trouble tying her shoes.

    • The subject is the professor, so the verb should be seems (not seem). Ignore extra details in between.

Another tricky case is the use of or or either/or. In those cases, the verb should match the closest subject.

Examples: OR & Either/Or

  • Both subjects singular → use singular verb:

    • The dog or the cat is a troublemaker.
    • Either the dog or the cat is a troublemaker.

  • One subject singular, one plural → verb agrees with the closer noun:

    • The dogs or the cat is a troublemaker.
    • The cat or the dogs are troublemakers. (Plural noun dogs is closer, so use plural are.)
    • The bird or the cats are hungry.

Collective nouns (e.g., family, team, audience) can be singular or plural depending on whether the group acts as a single unit or as individual members.

Examples: Collective nouns

  • Singular (acting as a unit): The family is going to the picnic together.
  • Plural (acting as individuals): The family are all going to meet up at the picnic.

In English, the subject usually comes before the verb, but when this order is reversed, make sure the verb still agrees with the true subject:

Example: Inverted word order

  • Inverted sentence: Beside the house stand sheds filled with tools.

    • The subject is sheds (plural), so the verb must be stand (not stands).

  • Standard word order: Sheds (filled with tools) stand beside the house.

Try It

Work through these slides to learn a few tips that will help you always get correct subject-verb agreement.

Two speech bubbles, one blank and one with a thumbs up.

Figure 1. When double checking for tense agreement, ask yourself, “Who (or what) is doing the action of the verb?”.

Consistency

One of the most common grammatical mistakes in writing is a lack of tense consistency. Writers often start a sentence in one tense but ended up in another. Look back at that sentence. Do you see the error? The first verb start is in the present tense, but ended is in the past tense.

The correct version of the sentence would be “Writers often start a sentence in one tense but end up in another.”

These mistakes often occur when writers change their minds halfway through writing or when they come back and make changes. It is very important to maintain a consistent tense, not just in a sentence but across paragraphs and pages. Decide if something happened, is happening, or will happen, and then stick with that choice.

Try It

Check your understanding of subject-verb agreement in the following interactive.