Subject-Verb Agreement Rules You May be Breaking

What are subjects?

​Every sentence needs a subject, verb, and complete thought. A subject is a noun that does an action in a sentence. In the statement “My cat complains too often,” my cat is the subject because it is the one that complains. My cat is doing the action.

What are linking verbs?

​Some verbs, however, are not actions. These include verbs like am, appear, are, being, been, become, and be, among others. These are called linking verbs because they connect the subject to additional information: “My cat is a cantankerous creature.” Here, the verb “is” connects “My cat” to the adjective “cantankerous,” which means that she is argumentative and bad-tempered.

Complete and Simple Subjects

​The single noun that “does a verb” is referred to as the simple subject. The simple subject and all of its modifiers is called the complete subject. In the following sentence, the complete subject is underlined and the simple subject is colored blue: The hunched-over, cantankerous cat looked at me with wide-eyed disdain. We know “cat” is the subject because it is doing the verb. Who looked? The cat looked. “The,” “hunched-over,” and “cantankerous” are part of the complete subject, because they are modifying “cat.”
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Subject-Verb Agreement​

​Subjects and verbs need to agree in number. This means that if a plural subject is used it needs to be matched to a plural verb form, and if a singular subject is used it needs to be matched to a singular verb form. Not all verbs change their form. In fact, of the twelve verb forms in table 1 below, only the six in red boxes change depending on their subject.

Note one correction below for the present simple. It should read, "Cantankerous kittens meow."

​Why it Matters

Subject-verb agreement is important because it signals competency to your reader. Additionally, while readers may be able to understand sentences with subject-verb agreement errors, they will distract from your message and undermine your credibility.

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Rules for Subject-Verb Agreement

​1. Each and Every
​

Typically, when two or more subjects are joined together by “and,” the main verb is plural; however, when a subject is modified by “each” and/or “every” the subject is singular. Single subjects modified by “each” and/or “every” are also followed by singular verbs.

Examples:
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a. “Each and every one of us has the capacity to be an oppressor. I want to encourage each and every one of us to interrogate how we might be an oppressor and how we might be able to become liberators for ourselves and for each other” –Laverne Cox ​

b. “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” –Seneca ​

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2. Collective Nouns
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Words like swarm, family, and band refer to a group and are called collective nouns. Singular collective nouns like “family” refer to one group and use a singular verb form

Examples:

a. “Family is not an important thing. It’s everything.” –Michael J. Fox

b. “A swarm focuses a group together, in real time, and has them work together as a system to answer a question…” –Louis B. Rosenberg ​

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3. Singular Nouns that End in “S”

Some singular nouns end in S. Examples include: diseases like “mumps,” school subjects like “linguistics,” and “economics,” and other words like “news.” These nouns require a singular verb.

Examples:
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a. “Linguistics is very much a science. It’s a human science, one of the human sciences. And it’s one of the more interesting human sciences.” –Samuel R. Delany

b. “Good news is rare these days, and every glittering ounce of it should be cherished and hoarded and worshipped and fondled like a priceless diamond.” –Hunter S. Thompson

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4. Indefinite Pronouns ​

Everything and everyone are two examples of indefinite pronouns. There are many indefinite pronouns in English and most of them are singular and require a singular verb.

Examples:
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a. “I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” –Michael Jordan

b. “Every day I feel is a blessing from God, and I consider it a new beginning. Yeah, everything is beautiful.” –Prince ​

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5. Units of Measurement
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Measurements (e.g. space, time, and money) are sometimes used as subjects. In these cases, the unit is considered singular and takes a singular verb.

Examples:
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a. “Some days, 24 hours is too much to stay put in, so I take the day hour by hour, moment by moment. I break the task, the challenge, the fear into small, bite-size pieces.” –Regina Brett ​

b. “Five million dollars is too much to spend on anything unless it will do some very wonderful things for people.” –Peter Hall

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​6. Compound Subjects
​

As stated earlier, when two or more subjects are joined by “and,” they take a plural verb. Two or more subjects joined together are called compound subjects.

Examples:
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a. “Your successes and happiness are forgiven you only if you generously consent to share them.” –Albert Camus

b. “Gratification and happiness are becoming important measures of our quality of life.” –Charles Kennedy

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7. Or / Nor / But
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When two subjects are joined together with “or,” “nor,” or “but” the verb must agree with the subject closest to it.

Examples:
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a. “Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.” –Dwight D. Eisenhower

b. “Either the doctor or the patients are terribly confused.” –Emanuel Nilsson

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8. Modifying Phrases
​

Don’t be confused by prepositional or verbal phrases that modify a subject. The verb only needs to agree with the subject. Isolate a subject by asking, “what is ‘doing the verb’?” For instance, in “He kicked the can”, who is kicking the can? “He” is kicking the can; therefore, “he” is the subject.

Examples:
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a. “The sun with all its natural powers [removes] poop stains.” –Franklin Goose (a blog)​

b. “The actor with all his poses [is hissed] off the stage.” –Desiderius Erasmus 

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9. Prepositional Phrases that Change a Subject’s Plurality
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Sometimes, a prepositional phrase is needed to determine whether a subject is plural or singular. This includes indefinite pronouns like all, none, and some.

Examples:
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a. “Some of the greatest blues music is some of the darkest you’ve ever heard.” –Bruce Springsteen

b. “None of the abstract concepts comes closer to fulfilled utopia than that of eternal peace.” –Theodor Adorno

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10. Questions and Here/There
​

In many questions and sentences with there and here, verbs come before a subject.

Examples:
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a. “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” –T. S. Eliot

b. “Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you’re alive, it isn’t.” –Richard Bach ​

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11. That, Which, and Who

When that, which, and who are used as subjects, their plurality depends on the noun they are referring to.
​

Examples:

a. “Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.” –Aristotle

b. “It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.” –Benjamin Franklin ​

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12. Gerunds
​

Gerunds are words that end in “ing” but are nouns. Don’t be confused. Gerunds follow the same rules as other subjects. ​

Examples:
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a. “Fighting is not something you can just turn off.” –Gerry Cooney

b. “Living is abnormal.” –Eugene Ionesco

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