Subject Verb Agreement –
Important Notes –
Subject is the doer of the action. It usually precedes the verb.
To find the subject of a sentence, ask the question ‘who/what’.
Verb is a state of being. All action words are verbs.
In the case of nouns, adding ‘s’ makes it plural.
In the case of verbs, adding an ‘s’ makes it singular.
The subject and verb should always agree in number.
In sentences using ‘or’, ‘either……or’ and ‘neither……nor’, the
verb agrees to the nearest subject.
o For example: Neither Akash nor the students know the
answer.
o The coach or the players have certain reservations.
If the sentence has words like ‘either’, ‘neither’, ‘each’, ‘every’,
it makes the subject singular and hence the verb also singular.
o Neither of the teachers is available to help.
o Each of the girl dances well.
In sentences using words like ‘some’, ‘none’, and ‘all’, the verb
is context specific. It can either be singular or plural.
o For example: Some of the milk has gone bad.
o Some of the boxes are missing.
A number denotes plural.
The number denotes singular.
o For example: A number of students are watching this
video.
o The number of students watching this video is high.
Things which come in pairs like scissors, trousers, spectacles
take the verb ‘are’ as they are plural.
o For example: The trousers are expensive.
When ‘a pair of’ is used in a sentence, it denotes the thing as a
singular subject and take the verb ‘is’.
Many a + singular subject + singular verb.
o For example: Many a chemical has an offending smell.
In sentences with words such as ‘as well as’, ‘along with’,
‘besides’, and ‘with’, the verb agrees with the subject that
precedes the preposition.
o For example: The Prime Minister as well as the Cabinet
Ministers, is in a meeting.
o The wife, along with the husband, is settled in the USA.
The word ‘and’ performs two functions.
o When it joins two distinct subjects.
For example: Ram and Sita are friends.
o When it joins two titles for the same subject or expresses
the same idea.
For example: He is lucky that his wife and secretary is
beautiful.
Bread and butter is good for health.
Time and Tide wait for none.
In sentences using collective nouns, when the collective acts as
a singular unit it will take a singular verb and whenever it acts
as individual members it will take a plural verb.
o For example: The team is winning.
o The team took their wives to the tour.
o The jury was unanimous in the decision.
o The jury were divided in their decision.
When sentences have the phrase ‘one of the’, it denotes plural.
o For example: He is one of the men who do the work.
Solve tab Analysis –
A verb should agree with its subject in number and person.
The determiner ‘more than one’ generally precedes a singular
noun and conveys a singular idea. Therefore ‘is’ is used.
Two or more singular subjects when connected by ‘and’ take a
plural verb.
o For example: Yuvraj and Harbhajan have been dropped
from the Indian team because of their bad form.
If singular subjects are preceded by ‘each’ or ‘every’, the
corresponding verb is singular.
Two nouns qualified by ‘each and ‘every’, even though
connected by ‘and’, require a singular verb.
o For example: Each day and every hour of a student
preparing for IIT is carefully planned.
Subjects with ‘either’, ‘neither’, ‘many a’ indicate a singular
number. They are always followed by a singular verb.
o For example: If either of the girls goes to the Olympics, it
will be a matter of great pride for the village.
o Many a child was injured due to the indiscriminate use of
pellet guns.
Indefinite and distributive pronouns such as ‘anyone’,
‘everybody’, ‘everyone’, ‘nobody’, etc. are always singular and
require a singular verb.
Some nouns are used only in the plural. They may indicate a
pair
o For example: trousers, scissors, spectacles, etc.
Some other nouns, which are always used as plural are means,
nuptials, premises, annals, tidings, proceeds, etc.
‘None’ is considered singular or plural as the context may
require. For instance, ‘none of them has escaped’ is another
way of saying that ‘not a single prisoner has escaped’, while
‘none of them have escaped’ is another way of saying that ‘no
prisoners have escaped’. In other words, the two forms are
slightly different ways of saying the same thing, and both are
grammatically valid.
A collective noun takes a singular verb when the collection is
thought of as one whole unit.
o For example: The team has been playing consistently
winning three major tournaments in a row.
o Since the performance of the team is considered as a
single unit, ‘has’ should be used in the given sentence.
Name of subjects always use the verb is.
The verb should agree in number with its proper subject and
not just with any noun/pronoun placed near it. This kind of
error of proximity is to be avoided.
o For example: The plight of the refugees is frequently
mentioned in the media but not addressed by any
government.
o In the given sentence, the actual subject is the singular
word ‘plight’ and not the plural noun ‘refugees.’ Thus, the
verb ‘is’ should be used.
If two subjects together express one idea, the verb must be
singular.
o For example: The carrot and stick approach is used by
many companies to retain their employees.
Subjects joined by ‘as well as’, ‘together with’, ‘along with’, ‘in
addition to’ etc., are parenthetical and do not affect the
number of the verb. The verb is matched with only the first
subject.
o For example: The workers of the factory, together with
the manager have decided to continue with the hunger
strike till their demands are met.
The expression ‘more than one’ precedes a singular noun.
Hence the subject is considered singular.
Two or more singular subjects connected by ‘or’ or ‘nor’ require
a singular verb.
The verb in an 'or, either/or, or neither/nor' sentence agrees
with the noun or pronoun closest to it.
o For example: Neither the teacher nor the school
authorities have been forthcoming about the accident.
o Since the noun closest to the verb is plural (authorities),
the plural verb ‘have’ should be used to complete the
sentence.
When the subjects joined by ‘or’ or ‘nor’ are of different
persons, the verb agrees with the person of the nearer subject.
o For example: Either Sara or I am responsible for the class.
o In the given sentence, ‘I’ is in first person; the appropriate
word for the blank would be ‘am’.
When a plural noun denotes some specific amount or quantity,
which is considered as a whole, the corresponding verb is
generally singular.
o For example: Ten kilometres is about how many miles?
When a collective noun is the subject of a sentence but the
focus is more on the individuals who compose the group, the
corresponding verb is plural.
o For example: The family were unable to decide where to
go for their vacation.
o Here ‘family’ refers to the individual members of the
family, so the verb should be plural. (Hint: later on in the
sentence, ‘family’ is referred to as ‘their’.)
If a sentence compounds a positive and a negative subject, the
verb should agree with the positive subject.
o For example: It is not the workers but the manager who is
responsible for the monthly production.
Fractional expressions such as ‘a percentage of’, ‘a majority of’,
‘half of’, etc. are sometimes singular and sometimes plural,
depending on the nouns they qualify. Therefore, their
corresponding verbs also vary.
o For example: According to a recent survey, a majority of
shareholders want the merger to take place.
o In the given sentence, the reference is to the major
portion of shareholders, i.e., a plural entity; hence the
verb should also be plural.
In sentences beginning with ‘here’ or ‘there’, the actual subject
follows, not precedes, the verb.
o For example: There is a lot of research on the use of
robots as factory workers.
o In the given sentence, ‘research’ is the subject.
‘When’ is the adverb place of time. To describe a plot of a story
‘in which’ or ‘where’ should be used instead of ‘when’.
Collective nouns such as jury, team, committee, etc. can take
either a singular or a plural pronoun, depending on the context.
In constructions of the type ‘one of + plural noun + who’ the
subject of the verb is the plural noun and not the singular ‘one’.
o For example: One of the few filmmakers who has.
o In such cases the plural verb has to be used after the
pronoun ‘who’ i.e., 'have’.
When there is a condition in the sentence, the conditional
auxiliary verb ‘could’ should be used.
If the sentences are in a subjunctive mood, the conditional
auxiliary verb ‘would’ should be used.
o For example: If you threw a dart at the heart of India but
your aim was off, a little low and to the right, you would
hit the village of Matenar, in the administrative division of
Bastar, in the state of Chhattisgarh.
If two singular nouns connected by ‘and’ refer to the same
person or thing, the verb must be singular. In such cases, the
article is used only once before the nouns.
o For example: The famous writer and director has won
three Oscar Awards.
If different subjects are referred to, by using separate articles
before each noun, the corresponding verb becomes plural.
o For example: The actor and the producer were invited for
the college function.
Nouns like ‘dozen’ which are singular in form but plural in
meaning, take a plural verb.
o For example: These mangoes are very expensive; five
dozen cost five hundred rupees.
In sentences of the type ‘one of……. that’ or ‘who’ or ‘which’
the antecedent of ‘that’ is considered to be the plural
noun/pronoun, and should therefore be followed by a plural
verb.
o For example: One of the activities that are loved by all
students is related to their hobbies.
o In the given sentence, ‘activities’, a plural noun, is the
subject of the verb. So, the corresponding verb should
also be plural i.e., ‘are’.
In sentences which are in subjunctive mood and express
hypothetical situations or possibilities, the verb ‘were’ should
be used.
o For example: If Ram were a hero, he would have broken
many cricketing records.
o I wish it were my vacation so that I could laze around
without doing any work.