Subject-Verb Agreement

Basics: The subject and verb of a sentence MUST match in number.

Singular subjects have singular verbs Ex: The girl likes cats.

Plural subjects have plural verbs. Ex: The girls like cats

Sometimes the subject and verb are separated by a prepositional phrase. Ex: A small bag of potato chips contains 440 calories.

The subject will NEVER be in the prepositional phrase so… Ignore the prepositional phrase and make sure the subject and verb agree in number The bag contains 440 calories.

Compound Subjects A compound subject is made up of two nouns connected by a joining word.

Examples Running and lifting weights are good ways to keep in shape. Fear and ignorance have a lot to do with hatred.

Subjects joined by “and” generally take a plural verb.

Trick: change the compound subject to “they” and see which verb fits. Which sounds right? They have a lot to do with hatred or They has a lot to do with hatred.