Subject-verb agreement sounds easy, doesn’t it? A singular subject takes singular verb:
Tom rides his bike to work every day.
A plural subject takes a plural verb:
The boys are climbing the walls like caged animals.
Yet The Copyeditor’s Handbook
One thing that trips up writers is a long, complicated subject. The writer gets lost in it and forgets which noun is actually the head of the subject phrase and instead makes the verb agree with the nearest noun:
The arrival of new fall fashions have excited all the back-to-school shoppers. (should be has to agree with arrival)
Another trap for writers is the trend away from strict grammatical agreement toward notional agreement, that is the verb agrees with the notion the subject is trying to get across, whether it’s singular or plural:
Twenty-five rules is a lot to digest.
Twenty-five rules are listed on the notice.
And then there’s the fact that English just refuses to fit neatly into a box and stay there. If English can take a left turn when you thought it would go straight, it does.
Here, then, is a brief rundown of 10 nuances of subject-verb agreement.
A subject made up of nouns joined by and takes a plural subject, unless that subject’s intended sense is singular.
She and I run every day.
Peanut butter and jelly is my favorite sandwich.
When a subject is made up of nouns joined by or, the verb agrees with the last noun.
She or I run every day.
Potatoes, pasta, or rice pairs well with grilled chicken.
Collective nouns (team, couple, staff, etc.) take either a singular or plural verb, depending on whether the emphasis is on the individual units or on the group as whole.
The football team is practicing night and day for the Super Bowl.
Boston’s school committee disagree about what to cut from the school budget.
Connectives, phrases such as combined with, coupled with, accompanied by, added to, along with, together with, and as well as, do not change the number of the subject. These phrases are usually set off with commas.
Oil, as well as gas, is a popular heating choice.
Peanut butter combined with bread and jelly is a tasty snack. (Here, the peanut butter, bread, and jelly are one unit, a sandwich, so no commas are needed and we keep the singular verb.)
Collecting noun phrases (a bunch of, a group of, a set of, etc.) take either a singular or plural verb, depending on whether the emphasis is on the individual units or on the group as whole:
A group of boys were digging in my flower beds!
A set of 12 dishes is all you need for the dinner party.
Each takes a singular verb.
Each boy is excited about the meet; each is well prepared.
None takes a singular verb if what it refers to is singular and a plural verb if its referent is plural.
None of the peas are left on Sean’s plate.
None of the book is reproducible without permission.
With fractions, the verb agrees with the whole.
One-fourth of the books are gone.
One-fourth of the sand is white.
With money, if the amount is specific, use a singular verb; if the amount is vague, use a plural verb.
Within a year, $5 million was spent on building a new factory, and millions more were spent on training future factory workers.
The phrase more than one takes a singular verb (yes, I know that doesn’t sound logical; try to remember that one is followed by something, whether explicitly or implicitly).
More than one box is sitting in the hallway.
More than one is sitting in the hallway.
Have a specific question on subject-verb agreement? Let me know in the comments below, and I’ll cover it in this space.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Nicely and clearly explained!
I like to think of “none” as having two possible meanings: “not any” (pl.) or “not one” (sing.). The plural sense is far more common and natural. In fact, if you mean “not one,” it’s better to use that phrase.
In a related vein, a lot of folks have (pl., due to synesis or notational agreement) trouble getting the verb to agree when “one” is the subject or looks like the subject. When you say “one of the people who work,” you need a plural verb, since the subject is “people,” not “one.” But when you say “One of them is going,” “One” is the subject, not “them.”
Yes, well explained.
In most cases, frankly, I’d rather restructure the sentence than introduce a subject-verb chain that, while correct, will just stick in the reader’s craw and draw his/her attention away from the message.
Are these sentences correct?
At the bottom, there was a lot of pipes colored beige, black, and white.
Hi, Margaret. Thanks for your comment. The example sentence is not correct. It should be:
At the bottom, there were a lot of pipes colored beige, black, and white.
Margaret,
I wanted to change the lede of a story tonight to avoid saying “A flurry of lawsuits was filed. …” Some would say “flurry” should have a plural verb so that there would be notional agreement with “lawsuits.” As an editor, I like to avoid grammatical constructions that are arguable. My boss said he would rather deal with irate readers than with an irate reporter with whom he already had had several disagreements regarding the same story.
If you were to use the phrase “flurry of lawsuits” as a subject, would you write “were filed” or “was filed”?
You could argue for either version, but I’d lean toward “a flurry of lawsuits was filed.” I can understand your boss’s desire not to argue with a reporter again, but I’d remind the report that if readers question it, they are likely to stop trusting this report and the newspaper–and that’s not good for anyone’s bottom line. I would rewrite the lede.
Is the following correct?
It is the combined efforts of many that creates and sustains this school.
Because the combined efforts produce one combination it should be singular-correct?
I would make the verbs plural: It is the combined efforts of many that create and sustain this school.
Although the result is singular, I don’t think the efforts are. I don’t think of them as one chunk (which would allow for notional agreement), the way I think of the rules in Twenty-five rules is a lot to digest. I think of many individual efforts that, when they happen with others, help a school keep running. It’s the same as Twenty-five rules are listed on the notice; the efforts are taken individually.
I’d also question the use of create with is. Although sustaining the school is an ongoing project so would be present tense, reflected in is as well as sustains, once you’re sustaining a school, it has been created. It’s not continually being created if it’s being sustained; it’s a completed action. I’d rewrite the sentence to reflect that: It is the combined efforts of many that created and sustains this school.
In each of the following sentences, it seems that “was” should be changed to “were,” since most are apparent compound subjects. However, most of these sentences sound clunky if they are changed. If you were an editor/proofreader who was not allowed to rephrase/rewrite an author’s sentence, merely correct errors such as subject-verb agreement, would you change the “was” to “were” in all of these sentences?
1) Here, children of every age romped among horses, dogs, and goats; everywhere there was life and vivid color.
Also, there was a young man in the store, three bakers, and two assistants who distributed the baked goods early in the morning throughout the village.
2) Our small room consisted of two cots and a sofa; there was a fireplace, three chairs, and a table.
3) There was also a Realschule and a Handelsakademie to prepare students for the more practical fields of industry and trade.
4) There was a pitcher and a basin in the bedroom and, shades of my youth, a chamber pot.
5) There was no shade and no real trees, only low bush powdered with dust.
7) I was used to having my protective husband by my side, but here, there was only my little boy and I.
Heather, I think if I were charged with fixing the grammar, then I would change was to were. I would also note that I made the change to keep things grammatical, but the result is stilted and the author might wish to consider revising the statement to make it sound more natural. Depending on the relationship, I might offer an example sentence or two or offer to make the changes in a second round (provider I were paid for it). HTH!
Nicely laid out, Erin. Thanks. Just got google-directed here looking for help with a “combined with” sentence. My sentence is more complicated and confusing than your example sentence, but I think the rule still applies.
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