Verb Agreement

The (Very) Verb Agreement Page:

Here's the deal:

If the subject of the sentence is singular, the verb in the sentence is singular.

If the subject of the sentence is plural, the verb is plural.

That's it!

Single subject = Single verb

Plural subject = Plural verb

Pretty obvious, right? Well. . .problems exist.

Problem #1: Not recognizing the subject.

Ralph with his disgusting habits is having trouble getting dates.

At first glance you might think that "is" should be "are".

Sadly, you would be wrong.

The subject is "Ralph", we only have one Ralph (thank goodness!).

 "With his disgusting habits" describes Ralph, but there is still only one of him.

Drinks at Mr. Henry's many bars cost too much.

That's right! "Drinks", a plural noun takes "cost", a plural verb.

Problem #2: Indefinite pronouns.

"Everybody", in fact any pronoun ending in "body" or "thing" or "one", will be singular.

Everybody (or everything or everyone) sits on everybody else.

(Have you noticed that English verbs become singular by adding an "s", but nouns become plural by adding an "s".

As if you didn't' t have enough to worry about.)

But here's the list of indefinite pronouns that hangs us up the most:

each, one, either, neither

will always be singular no matter how weird it may sound:

One of the dogs is way dead.

Each of the dogs is way dead.

Either of the dogs is way dead.

Neither of the dogs is way dead.

And then there are the always-plural pronouns:

both, many, several, others, few.

Both of the dogs are way dead.

Many of the dogs are way dead.

Several of the dogs are way dead.

Others of the dogs are way dead.

Few of the dogs are way dead.

Get the idea?

Perhaps we should take a moment to create some of your own examples.

Yes, we should.

The reason I used the same basic sentence for the examples above is to help you begin to "hear" the correct verb with those pronouns.

I suggest you do the same, only write about something other than dogs becoming dead!

Problem #3: Nouns that swing both ways--sometimes they are plural, sometimes they is singular.

How this works is you choose a singular or a plural verb according to the sense of the sentence.

Data suggest that if you push something hard enough it will fall down.

Data is what we need lots of to impress our teachers.

In the first sentence we are talking about a collections of bits of information; in the second sentence we are talking about the idea of a collection of information.

Problem #4: Titles

The title of a book, or a story, or a movie, or a tv show or any other title will always be singular even if the title itself is plural.

True story: When Alfred Hitchcock's horror movie, "The Birds" was being released, billboards all over the country proclaimed, " 'The Birds' is coming."

The very awkwardness of the sentence was a very clever attention getter.

It is also grammatically correct.

There was only one movie coming and the verb needs to be singular regardless of how many birds the title refers to.

The Rolling Stones is doing a concert Saturday in either Bismarck, North Dakota or Brooklyn, New York.

"Jason and the Argonauts" is a wonderful old myth, not a wonderful old miss!

Be alert to this rule when you are doing research papers!

Problem #5: Names of things that have a plural form.

"Physics" has a plural construction, but we think of it as a single subject.

Physics will clear your sinuses.

Lots of words do this to us:

The news is not good. ("news" is singular)

The jitters is what I have right now as my parachute refuses to open. ("jitters" is singular)

These words are very similar to titles.

They name such things as topics, names of classes, names of illnesses.

The context of the sentence will help you decide, but also look for the words "the, a, an" in front of them; they tend to point to single things.

Whew! For an easy topic this sure goes on and on! One more and then let's call it quits.

Problem # 6: Measurements.

Nouns such as "majority"," fourteen barrels", "number" etc. may be either singular or plural.

If they refer to a single bunch, they are singular.

Fourteen barrels is the amount we need. Fourteen barrels are on the porch.

The majority is (right, wrong, up, down, whatever!). The majority of the bars in this town are never closed.

That's enough. You and I need a break.

To return to Step Two, click here.