Subjects and verbs 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 writing unusual phrases
that make it difficult to tell if the subject is singular or plural.
1) A subject
and verb may be separated by an accompanying phrase without changing
the agreement.
The child, together with his grandmother
and his parents, is going to the beach.
When
a phrase sandwiched by commas comes between a subject and a verb,
the subject and verb must still agree. The accompanying
phrase "his grandmother and his parents" only provides
extra information and does not interfere in the grammatical relationship
between the subject (the child) and the verb (going).
Here is
another example:
INCORRECT: Frank, accompanied by his students, were at the studio.
To clarify which words are the subject and verb cross out what is
inside the commas:
Frank, accompanied by his students, were at the studio.
We are left with: Frank were at the studio.
This remaining sentence makes no sense.
CORRECT : Frank, accompanied by his students, was at the studio.
Why? Frank is the subject of the sentence,
not his students. Therefore, Frank was at the studio.
Keep track of the subject and verb when you
are writing a sentence:
INCORRECT: His mastery
of several sports and the social graces make him a sought-after
prom date.
CORRECT: His mastery
of several sports and the social graces makes him a sought-after
prom date.
Why? His mastery is the subject
of the sentence, not the sports and social graces, so the verb "to
make" must agree with a singular subject; makes is the singular form of the verb.
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 flock of birds is flying south.
The flock of birds is a singular group so it uses the singular verb
"is," not the plural verb "are."
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 separated
by and the plural form is used.
Neither Ted nor John is going.
The sentence is essentially saying that Ted is not going and John
is not going either. Since neither one of the two
is going, we must speak of them using a singular verb.
4) Be careful to choose the right subject in sentences in which
the verb precedes the subject.
INCORRECT: There is many reasons why I can't help you.
CORRECT: There are many reasons why I can't help you.
Here reasons is the subject, not I. The verb should be plural
to agree with reasons.
Tricks: beware of confusing singular/plural words:
| Singular |
Plural |
| Medium |
Media |
| Datum |
Data |
|
