SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT Karen Y Silvestri Fayetteville Technical Community College

Subject and its verb must agree  Singular subjects have singular verbs  Plural subjects have plural verbs The museum opens at ten. The museums open at ten.

Regular Verbs SingularPlural 1 st PersonI playWe play 2 nd PersonYou play 3 rd PersonHe/she/it playsThey play Molly playsMolly and Sam play

Irregular Verb (be) SingularPlural 1 st PersonI amWe are 2 nd PersonYou are 3 rd PersonHe/she/it isThey are Sam isSam and Bob are The student isThe students are

Irregular Verb (have) SingularPlural 1 st personI haveWe have 2 nd personYou have 3 rd personHe/she/it hasThey have Sam hasSam and Bob have The student hasThe students have

Irregular Verb (do) SingularPlural 1 st personI doWe do 2 nd personYou do 3 rd personHe/she/it doesThey do Ken doesKen and Mia do The book doesThe books do

Compound Subjects  And = plural verb John and Marsha share an office.  Or = singular verb if each subject is singular John or Marsha locks up at the end of the day.  Or = plural verb if each subject is plural Buses or trains take you to the city.

.  Or = singular or plural depending on which is closest to the verb The mayor or the council members meet with community groups. The council members or the mayor meets with community groups.

Prepositional Phrases  Recall that the subject of the sentence will NEVER be the object of a prepositional phrase!  Remember to cross out those prepositional phrases in order to find the subject! This sentence has a PLURAL subject, so it needs a PLURAL verb.  High levels of mercury occur in some fish.

Indefinite Pronouns  All the BODIES Somebody, anybody, everybody  All the ONES Someone, anyone, everyone  All the THINGS Something, anything, everything  Either, neither, either, each These ALWAYS take a singular verb!

All of these take SINGULAR verb No one likes getting up early. Everyone likes to sleep late. Somebody likes beets.

Indefinites that take PLURAL verb  Both  Many  Several  Few  Others  Many were left homeless by the storm.

Careful! Watch out for those PP’s!  If a prepositional phrase comes between the indefinite pronoun and the verb, cross out the prepositional phrase to help you identify the sentence’s subject. Each of the boys has a bike. Many of the boys have bikes.

When verb comes before subject  Questions are culprits! Where is the bank? Are you going to the party?  Try answering the question with a statement to find the subject! Where is the bank? The bank is on Walnut Street.

There Is and There Are  There can never be the subject of the sentence.  There are nine justices on the Supreme Court.  There is one chief justice on the Court.

Relative Pronouns: who, which, that  Singular when referring to singular word  Plural when referring to plural word The author, who writes about immigrants, spoke at the college. This course, which has a waiting list, is open only to seniors. Computers that have flat-screen monitors are expensive.