Subject-Verb Agreement
The subject and verb of a sentence should 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.
Ignore the prepositional phrase and make sure the subject and verb agree in number The bag contains 440 calories.
A compound subject is made up of two nouns connected by a joining word.
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.