Grammar: Subject-Verb Agreement

BASIC RULE OF SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT IS: “THE S RULE”:
If subject is singular, verb ends in S.
If subject is plural, verb does NOT end in S.
The employee think/thinks the manager is unreasonable.
The employees think/thinks the manager is unreasonable.
The man want/wants to go now.
The men want/wants to go now.
Note: Remember The S Rule with doesn’t and don’t (and isn’t and aren’t)
He doesn’t want to go (not: he don’t want to go!)

COMPOUND SUBJECTS

AND: the subject is plural.

Example: Anna and I walk the dog.

OR and NOR: singular or plural, depending on whether the subject closest to the
verb is singular or plural.

Examples: Anna or Shirley walks the dog.
The twins or Anna walks the dog.
Anna or the twins walk the dog

DON’T BE CONFUSED BY PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES!
Prepositional phrases are clauses in the sentence that start with a preposition (OF,
IN, ON, ABOVE, ETC.) and ends with a noun (or pronoun). They NEVER
contain the subject! DISREGARD them when deciding verb agreement!

Example: The vase of flowers is on the table.

Vase is the subject and it is singular!!! Ignore the words “of flowers”

AND DON’T BE CONFUSED BY “INTERRUPTERS” :
As well as
In addition to
Along with
Together with
Besides
NOTE: these words will be surrounded by commas.

Example: Evan, as well as his mom, is home.

RULE: IGNORE interrupters when deciding verb agreement; they are NOT part of the
subject.

Example: Bill, along with three other guys, lives in that apartment.
(Bill is the subject, and it is singular)

SPECIAL CASES:

(1) EACH, EITHER, NEITHER: always singular

Examples: Each of the children has a cupcake.
Neither room has been cleaned.
Either is fine.

(2) ALL, SOME, NONE, MOST, ANY: singular or plural depending on
what it refers to

Example 1: All of the snow is melted. All is singular here because
it refers to the snow
Example 2: All of the kids eat ice-cream. Now all is plural because
it refers to the kids.

NOTE: This is an exception to the rule that you ignore the
prepositional phrases! Here, you must look at the prepositional
phrase to know what the subject “ALL” refers to.

Practice:
Directions- Identify and correct the 10 Subject-Verb Agreement errors in the following paragraph.

In her article, ‘Lower the Drinking Age for Everyone,’ Michelle Minton argue that the US should allow 18 year olds to buy and consume alcohol. She point out the inconsistency that although 18 year olds are considered legally adults, when it comes to alcohol they doesn’t have the same rights as older people. Minton also claims that a high drinking age do not prevent alcohol-related problems. America have a worse rate of alcoholism in young people than Europe, even though nearly all European countries has a lower drinking age. She thinks this is because making alcohol illegal for college-aged people force them to drink on the sneak, which is more dangerous. To me, the most interesting idea presented in the article is that a high drinking age doesn’t simply do no good, it actually make things worse. I think this is true, because banning alcohol do not stop people from drinking. It only changes the way that they drinks.