 This
week we are going to talk about problems with subject-verb agreement.
Basically, subjects and verbs must agree in number. If the subject is
plural, its verb also must be plural. For example, you would not say,
“The dog are friendly” because the subject dog is singular and the verb
are is plural. The sentence should, of course, be, “The dog is friendly.”
This is an easy example. But subject-verb agreement gets much more
difficult, especially in sentences with complex subjects or when the
subject is separated from its verb.
Compound subjects
Let’s start with compound subjects. A compound subject is two or more
individual nouns connected into a larger noun phrase. For example,
“Sherry and her friends from Florida are coming to visit.” The key word
here is and. “Sherry and her friends from Florida” is the compound
subject. When you have two or more subjects connected by and, use a
plural verb. “Salt and pepper are popular condiments.” However, if you
have two singular subjects connected by the word or, use a singular verb.
For example, “My mother or my father drives me to school every day.”
Gerund subjects
Now let’s look at gerunds. A gerund is the –ing form of a verb that acts
as a noun. Gerund subjects are singular. For example, “Running is fun.”
The gerund is running. A longer gerund phrase is still singular, even if
the phrase ends with a plural noun. For example, “Running with my
friends is fun.” You can learn more about gerunds in our episode on
gerunds and infinitives.
Group nouns
Group nouns, also called collective nouns, can also be confusing. These
are nouns like committee, staff, family, and crew. Group nouns suggest
more than one person, but they are still singular for grammatical
purposes, such as, “My family is here” or “The new staff starts tomorrow.”
Americans use a singular verb after a group noun. The British, on the
other hand, use both singular and plural verbs after group nouns. So,
you might hear someone from the UK say, “The team are winning” or “The
team is winning.”
Country names
Country names, even if they end in –s, are still singular. For example,
“The Philippines is a country in Asia.” However, if you are speaking
about people of the country, use the plural. For example, “The Filipinos
are friendly.”
The United States is a singular noun. But this was not always true.
Before the American Civil War in the 1860s, many people said, “The
United States are,” instead of “The United States is”.
Civil War historian Shelby Foote said the change from are to is shows a
change in American thinking. Before the Civil War, many people thought
of the United States as a collection of independent states. After the
Civil War, more Americans thought of themselves as a single country. As
Mr. Foote famously said, the Civil War “made us an is.”
Words that are always singular
Some common adjectives and pronouns are always singular. Indefinite
pronouns ending in –body, -one, and –thing are never plural. For example,
“Everyone who drives to work faces heavy traffic.”
Distributive words like each and every are always singular. For example,
“Every student and teacher works very hard.” Even though there are two
nouns connected by and, the verb is still singular following every.
Each and every often confuse even native English speakers. For this
reason, they are a popular topic for makers of standardized tests like
the SAT. For example, “Each of the boys has his own book.” A lot of
Americans would say, “Each of the boys have their own book.” Both ways
are acceptable in everyday conversation. But in formal writing and
standardized tests, the first sentence is more correct: each makes the
sentence singular, regardless of what follows it. For more on this topic,
see our episode, Problems with Pronouns and Gender.
Test maker tricks
Test makers often create trick questions by separating the subject and
the verb, hoping to mislead test takers into choosing the wrong answer.
Here is a rather extreme example of subject-verb separation: “Everybody
who has ever gone on vacation to Indonesia or the Philippines knows that
the water there is warm.” In this sentence the subject everyone is
separated from the main verb knows by a long subordinate clause. But the
rule is the same: every makes the subject singular, no matter how far
away the main verb may be.
Also, be careful with the word none. In very formal grammar, none is a
contraction for the singular not one. It is common to use none with both
singular and plural verbs. You will hear, “None of you are listening”
and “None of you is listening.” But in very formal grammar, none is only
used with singular verbs.
Words that are always plural
There are a few English words that are always plural. The most common
ones are glasses (when referring to eye glasses), trousers, pants,
scissors, clothes and police. In addition, the names of some academics
subjects are always plural such as physics, mathematics, and economics.
The bottom line
Subject-verb agreement is the foundation of grammar. The most important
thing to remember is this: subjects and verbs are sometimes separated.
Don’t examine grammar with tunnel vision. Slow down, step back and look
at the whole sentence in context.
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