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Basic Principle: Singular subjects need singular verbs; plural subjects need plural verbs. My
brother is a nutritionist. My sisters are mathematicians.
See the section on Plurals for additional help with subject-verb agreement.
The indefinite pronouns anyone, everyone, someone, no one, nobody are always singular and, therefore,
require singular verbs.
Everyone has done his or her homework. Somebody has left her purse.
Some indefinite pronouns — such as all, some — are singular or plural depending on what they're
referring to. (Is the thing referred to countable or not?) Be careful choosing a verb to accompany such
pronouns.
Some of the beads are missing. Some of the water is gone.
On the other hand, there is one indefinite pronoun, none, that can be either singular or plural; it often
doesn't matter whether you use a singular or a plural verb — unless something else in the sentence
determines its number. (Writers generally think of none as meaning not any and will choose a plural verb,
as in "None of the engines are working," but when something else makes us regard none as meaning not
one, we want a singular verb, as in "None of the food is fresh.")
None of you claims responsibility for this incident? None of you claim responsibility for this incident? None of the students have done their homework. (In this last example, the word their
precludes the use of the singular verb.
Some indefinite pronouns are particularly troublesome Everyone and everybody (listed above, also) certainly feel like more than one person and, therefore, students are sometimes tempted to use a plural verb with them. They are always singular, though. Each is often followed by a prepositional phrase ending in a plural word (Each of the cars), thus confusing the verb choice. Each, too, is always singular and requires a singular verb.
Everyone has finished his or her homework.
You would always say, "Everybody is here." This means that the word is singular and nothing will change
that.
Each of the students is responsible for doing his or her work in the library.
Don't let the word "students" confuse you; the subject is each and each is always singular — Each is
responsible.
Phrases such as together with, as well as, and along with are not the same as and. The phrase introduced
by as well as or along with will modify the earlier word (mayor in this case), but it does not compound
the subjects (as the word and would do).
The mayor as well as his brothers is going to prison. The mayor and his brothers are going to jail.
The pronouns neither and either are singular and require singular verbs even though they seem to be
referring, in a sense, to two things.
Neither of the two traffic lights is working. Which shirt do you want for Christmas?
Either is fine with me.
In informal writing, neither and either sometimes take a plural verb when these pronouns are followed by
a prepositional phrase beginning with of. This is particularly true of interrogative constructions: "Have
either of you two clowns read the assignment?" "Are either of you taking this seriously?" Burchfield calls
this "a clash between notional and actual agreement."*
The conjunction or does not conjoin (as and does): when nor or or is used the subject closer to the verb
determines the number of the verb. Whether the subject comes before or after the verb doesn't matter; the
proximity determines the number.
Either my father or my brothers are going to sell the house. Neither my brothers nor my father is going to sell the house. Are either my brothers or my father responsible? Is either my father or my brothers responsible?
Because a sentence like "Neither my brothers nor my father is going to sell the house" sounds peculiar, it
is probably a good idea to put the plural subject closer to the verb whenever that is possible.
The words there and here are never subjects.
There are two reasons [plural subject] for this. There is no reason for this. Here are two apples.
With these constructions (called expletive constructions), the subject follows the verb but still determines
the number of the verb.
Verbs in the present tense for third-person, singular subjects (he, she, it and anything those words can
stand for) have s-endings. Other verbs do not add s-endings.
He loves and she loves and they love_ and . . . .
ometimes modifiers will get betwen a subject and its verb, but these modifiers must not confuse the
agreement between the subject and its verb.
The mayor, who has been convicted along with his four brothers on four counts of various crimes but who also seems, like a cat, to have several political lives, is finally going to jail.
Sometimes nouns take weird forms and can fool us into thinking they're plural when they're really
singular and vice-versa. Consult the section on the Plural Forms of Nouns and the section on Collective
Nouns for additional help. Words such as glasses, pants, pliers, and scissors are regarded as plural (and
require plural verbs) unless they're preceded the phrase pair of (in which case the word pair becomes the
subject).
My glasses were on the bed. My pants were torn. A pair of plaid trousers is in the closet.
Some words end in -s and appear to be plural but are really singular and require singular verbs.
The news from the front is bad. Measles is a dangerous disease for pregnant women.
On the other hand, some words ending in -s refer to a single thing but are nonetheless plural and require a
plural verb.
My assets were wiped out in the depression. The average worker's earnings have gone up dramatically. Our thanks go to the workers who supported the union.
The names of sports teams that do not end in "s" will take a plural verb: the Miami Heat have been
looking … , The Connecticut Sun are hoping that new talent … . See the section on plurals for help with
this problem.
Fractional expressions such as half of, a part of, a percentage of, a majority of are sometimes singular and
sometimes plural, depending on the meaning. (The same is true, of course, when all, any, more, most and
some act as subjects.) Sums and products of mathematical processes are expressed as singular and require
singular verbs. The expression "more than one" (oddly enough) takes a singular verb: "More than one
student has tried this."
Some of the voters are still angry. A large percentage of the older population is voting against her. Two-fifths of the troops were lost in the battle. Two-fifths of the vineyard was destroyed by fire. Forty percent of the students are in favor of changing the policy. Forty percent of the student body is in favor of changing the policy. Two and two is four. Four times four divided by two is eight.
If your sentence compounds a positive and a negative subject and one is plural, the other singular, the
verb should agree with the positive subject.
The department members but not the chair have decided not to teach on Valentine's Day. It is not the faculty members but the president who decides this issue. It was the speaker, not his ideas, that has provoked the students to riot.
Quiz on Subject-Verb Agreement
Select one answer from the choices provided after each sentence. The word you choose should fit the blank in the sentence. Don't use the HINT buttons unless you really need them.
1. Either the physicians in this hospital or the chief administrator ____ going to have to make a decision.
is
are
2. ______ my boss or my sisters in the union going to win this grievance?
Is
Are
3. Some of the votes __________ to have been miscounted.
seem
seems
4. The tornadoes that tear through this county every spring _____ more than just a nuisance.
are
is
5. Everyone selected to serve on this jury _____ to be willing to give up a lot of time.
have
has
6. Kara Wolters, together with her teammates, _________ a formidable opponent on the basketball court.
presents
present
7. He seems to forget that there __________ things to be done before he can graduate.
are
is
8. There _______ to be some people left in that town after yesterday's flood.
have
has
9. Some of the grain __________ to be contaminated.
appear
appears
10. Three-quarters of the students __________ against the tuition hike.
is
are
11. Three-quarters of the student body __________ against the tuition hike.
is
are
12. A high percentage of the population _________ voting for the new school.
is
are
13. A high percentage of the people _________ voting for the new school.
was
were
A Second Quiz on Subject-Verb Agreement
After each sentence select the verb form that will best fit in the blank. The explanation will describe
the process of arriving at the correct choice for that sentence. If you choose the correct response, it might
still be a good idea to consult the explanation, to see if your understanding of the verb choice is the same
as ours.
1. Carlos is the only one of those students who __________ lived up to the potential described in the yearbook.
has
have
2. The International Club, as well as the Choral Society and the Rowing Club, __________ to submit a new constitution.
need
needs
3. One of my best friends _____________ an extra on Seinfeld this week.
are
is
4. Not only the students but also their instructor ________ been called to the principal's office.
have
has
5. Most of the milk _____ gone bad. Six gallons of milk _______ still in the refrigerator.
has ---- are
have ---- is
6. Each and every student and instructor in this building __________ for a new facility by next year.
hope
hopes
7. The students and instructors each ________for a new facility by next year.
hopes
hope
8. Rice and beans, my favorite dish, __________ me of my native Puerto Rico.
remind
reminds
9. A large number of voters still ___________ along straight-party lines.
votes
vote
10. Four years _______ a long time to spend away from your friends and family.
are
is
11. Politics __________ sometimes a dirty business.
are
is
12. To an outsider, the economics of this country ________ to be in disarray.
seem
seems
Making Subjects and Verbs Agree
This handout gives you several guidelines to help your subjects and verbs agree.
1. When the subject of a sentence is composed of two or more nouns or pronouns connected by and,
use a plural verb.
She and her friends are at the fair.
2. When two or more singular nouns or pronouns are connected by or or nor, use a singular verb.
The book or the pen is in the drawer.
3. When a compound subject contains both a singular and a plural noun or pronoun joined by or or
nor, the verb should agree with the part of the subject that is nearer the verb.
The boy or his friends run every day.
His friends or the boy runs every day.
4. Doesn't is a contraction of does not and should be used only with a singular subject. Don't is a
contraction of do not and should be used only with a plural subject. The exception to this rule appears in
the case of the first person and second person pronouns I and you. With these pronouns, the contraction
don't should be used.
He doesn't like it.
They don't like it.
5. Do not be misled by a phrase that comes between the subject and the verb. The verb agrees with
the subject, not with a noun or pronoun in the phrase.
One of the boxes is open
The people who listen to that music are few.
The team captain, as well as his players, is anxious.
The book, including all the chapters in the first section, is boring.
The woman with all the dogs walks down my street.
6. The words each, each one, either, neither, everyone, everybody, anybody, anyone, nobody,
somebody, someone, and no one are singular and require a singular verb.
Each of these hot dogs is juicy.
Everybody knows Mr. Jones.
Either is correct.
7. Nouns such as civics, mathematics, dollars, measles, and news require singular verbs.
The news is on at six.
Note: the word dollars is a special case. When talking about an amount of money, it requires a
singular verb, but when referring to the dollars themselves, a plural verb is required.
Five dollars is a lot of money.
Dollars are often used instead of rubles in Russia.
8. Nouns such as scissors, tweezers, trousers, and shears require plural verbs. (There are two parts to
these things.)
These scissors are dull.
Those trousers are made of wool.
9. In sentences beginning with there is or there are, the subject follows the verb. Since there is not
the subject, the verb agrees with what follows.
There are many questions.
There is a question.
10. Collective nouns are words that imply more than one person but that are considered singular and
take a singular verb, such as: group, team, committee, class, and family.
The team runs during practice.
The committee decides how to proceed.
The family has a long history.
My family has never been able to agree.
In some cases, a sentence may call for the use of a plural verb when using a collective noun.
The crew are preparing to dock the ship.
This sentence is referring to the individual efforts of each crew member. The Gregg Reference
Manual provides excellent explanations of subject-verb agreement (section 10: 1001).
11. Expressions such as with, together with, including, accompanied by, in addition to, or as well do
not change the number of the subject. If the subject is singular, the verb is too.
The President, accompanied by his wife, is traveling to India.
All of the books, including yours, are in that box.
Third Quiz on Subject-Verb Agreement
Instructions
Select the appropriate verbs from the drop-down menus to complete each sentence correctly. There are thirty-three "opportunities for error" in these paragraphs. When you click on "check answers," the computer will indicate your score and put a sideways grin :) next to each correct answer and an X next to any incorrect answers. Reconsider and change any incorrect responses; then re-grade the quiz. Caution: the singular verb is not always given first.
Soccer — or football (or football or futbol), as it is called by the rest of the world outside the
United States — surely the most popular sport in the world. Every four years, the
world championship of soccer, the World Cup, watched by literally billions all over the world, beating out the United States professional football's Superbowl by far. It is estimated that 1.7 billion television viewers watched the World Cup final between France and Brazil in July of 1998. And it is also a genuine world championship, involving teams from 32 countries in the final rounds, unlike the much more parochial and misnamed World Series in American baseball (that
even involve Japan or Cuba, two baseball hotbeds). But although soccer has become an important sport in the American sports scene, it will never make inroads into the hearts and markets of American sports the way that football, basketball, hockey, baseball, and even tennis
and golf done. There are many reasons for this.
Recently the New England Revolution beat the Tampa Bay Mutiny in a game played during a
horrid rainstorm. Nearly 5000 fans showed up, which that soccer is, indeed,
popular in the United States. However, the story of the game buried near the back of
the newspaper's sports section, and there certainly no television coverage. In fact,
the biggest reason for soccer's failure as a mass appeal sport in the United States is that it doesn't conform easily to the demands of television. Basketball succeeds enormously in America because it
regularly what it calls "television time-outs" as well as the time-outs that the teams themselves call to re-group, not to mention half-times and, on the professional level, quarter
breaks. Those time-outs in the action ideally made for television commercials. And
television coverage is the lifeblood of American sports. College basketball for a game scheduled on CBS or ESPN (highly recruited high school players are more likely to go to a team that regularly gets national television exposure), and we could even say that television
coverage dictated the pace and feel of American football. Anyone who
attended a live football game knows how commercial time-outs the game and
sometimes, at its most exciting moments, the flow of events. There is no serious objection, however, because without television, football knows that it simply wouldn't remain in the homes and hearts of Americans. Also, without those advertising dollars, the teams couldn't afford the sky-high salaries of their high-priced superstars.
Soccer, on the other hand, except for its half-time break, has no time-outs; except for half-time, it is constant run, run, run, run, back and forth, back and forth, relentlessly, with only a few seconds of relaxation when a goal is scored, and that can happen seldom, sometimes never. The best that
commercial television coverage can hope for is an injury time-out, and in soccer that
only with decapitation or disembowelment.
Second, Americans love their violence, and soccer doesn't deliver on this score the way that
American football and hockey . There are brief moments, spurts of violence, yes, but fans can't expect the full-time menu of bone-crushing carnage that American football and hockey can deliver minute after minute, game after game. In soccer, players are actually singled out and warned — shamed, with embarrassingly silly "yellow cards," for acts of violence and duplicity that would be smiled at in most American sports other than tennis and golf.
Third, it is just too difficult to score in soccer. America its football games with
scores like 49 to 35 and a professional basketball game with scores below 100 regarded as a defensive bore. In soccer, on the other hand, scores like 2 to 1, even 1 to 0,
commonplace and apparently desirable; games scoreless at the end of regulation time happen all the time. (In the 515 games played in the final phase in the history of the World
Cup games through 1994, only 1584 goals scored. That's three a game!) And if there
no resolution at the end of overtime, the teams resort to a shoot-out that
more to do with luck than with real soccer skills. Worse yet, it is possible for a team to dominate in terms of sheer talent and "shots-on-goal" and still lose the game by virtue of a momentary lapse in defensive attention, a stroke of bad luck, and the opponent's break-away goal.
Things like that can happen, too, in baseball, but the problem somehow out over baseball's very long season of daily games. In soccer, it just isn't fair. Soccer authorities should consider making the goal smaller and doing away with the goalie to make scoring easier. And the
business of starting over after each goal, in the middle of the field, to be reconsidered. It's too much like the center-jump after each goal in the basketball game of yesteryear.
It unlikely that Americans will ever fully comprehend or appreciate a sport in which players are not allowed to use their arms and hands. Although the footwork of soccer players
a magnificent skill to behold, most American fans are perplexed by straitjacketed soccer players' inability and unwillingness to "pick up the darn ball and run with it!" The inability to use substitutes (unless the players to be substituted for are lying dead or maimed on the field of
play) also bewildering to Americans, who glorify the "sixth man" in basketball and a baseball game in which virtually the entire roster (including an otherwise unemployable old man
called "the designated hitter") deployed on the field at one time or another.
Finally, the field in soccer is enormous. Considerably larger than the American football field, the soccer field could contain at least a dozen basketball courts. Americans like their action condensed, in a small field of vision — ten enormous sweaty people bouncing off one another and moving rapidly through a space the size of a medium-sized bedroom, twenty-two even larger people in bulky uniforms converging on a small, oddly shaped ball. In soccer, on the other hand, there
a premium on "spreading out," not infringing upon the force field occupied by a team-mate, so that fancy foot-passing is possible. This spreading out across the vast meadow of the
soccer playing field not lend itself, again, to close get-down-and-dirty television
scrutiny. Soccer is a great sport and it certainly the increased attention and popularity it is getting on all levels. But — primarily, again, because it does not lend itself to
television — it will never make it big in the United States the way these other sports
, not until it some of its fundamental strategies.