5b(1). Subject-Verb Agreement

The verb and subject must agree. If the subject is singular, the verb must be singular. If the subject is plural, the verb must be plural. Test writers will try to fool you by using writing unusual phrases that make it difficult to tell if the subject is singular or plural.

1) If a singular subject is separated by a comma from an accompanying phrase, it remains singular:

The child, together with his grandmother and his parents, is going to the beach.

wrong: Frank, accompanied by his student, were at the studio.
right: Frank, accompanied by his student, was at the studio.

wrong: His mastery of several sports and the social graces make him a sought-after prom date.
right: His mastery of several sports and the social graces makes him a sought-after prom date.

His is singular and makes is singular.

2) Collective nouns, such as family, majority, audience, and committee are singular when they act in a collective fashion or represent one group. They are plural when they act as individuals.
Collective nouns will usually be singular in Sentence Correction sentences.

A majority of the shareholders wants the merger.

Here the "majority" acts as a singular, and therefore has a singular verb: "wants."

The jury were in disagreement.

Collective noun, plural verb (because they are acting as individuals). Note: this is very rare and highly unlikely to come up on test day.

 

3) Phrases separated by and are plural, phrases separated by or are singular. Neither/nor and either/or are also singular.

Ted, John, and I are going.

Because they are seperated by and the plural form is used

4) Be careful you choose the right subject in sentences in which the verb precedes the subject.

wrong: There is many reasons why I can't help you.
right: There are many reasons why I can't help you.

Here reasons is the subject.

tricks: beware of confusing singular/plural words:

Singular	Plural
Medium	Media
Datum	Data

>>continue to Grammar: Modification (page 2 of 12 Chapter 5b)