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10 Agreement

The document outlines 10 rules for subject-verb agreement in English sentences: 1) The subject and verb must agree in number - either both singular or both plural. 2) Words between the subject and verb do not change the number of the subject. 3) Some subjects like "someone" take a singular verb. 4) Words like "some", "any", "all", "most" can be singular or plural depending on use. 5) Subjects joined by "and" are plural, by "or" or "nor" take the verb of the last subject.

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Ana Gabriela Barcos
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54 views1 page

10 Agreement

The document outlines 10 rules for subject-verb agreement in English sentences: 1) The subject and verb must agree in number - either both singular or both plural. 2) Words between the subject and verb do not change the number of the subject. 3) Some subjects like "someone" take a singular verb. 4) Words like "some", "any", "all", "most" can be singular or plural depending on use. 5) Subjects joined by "and" are plural, by "or" or "nor" take the verb of the last subject.

Uploaded by

Ana Gabriela Barcos
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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RULE1: The subject and verb must agree in number: both must be

singular, or both must be plural.


Example:The car belongs to my brother.(SINGULAR)
They also play football.(PLURAL)
RULE2: The number of the subject (singular or plural) is not changed
by words(or a phrase) that come in between the subject and the verb.
Example: One of the boxes is open.
Here,the subject “one” and the verb “is” are both singular.

RULE3: Some subjects always take a singular verb even though the
meaning may seem plural.
Example: Someone in the game was (not were) hurt.

RULE4: The following words may be singular or plural, depending upon their use in a sentence:
some,any, all, most.
Example: Most of the news is good. (singular)
Most of the flowers were yellow. (plural)

RULE5: Subjects joined by “and” are plural. Subjects joined by “or” or “Nor” take a verb that agrees
with the last subject.
Example: Bob and George are leaving.
Neither Bob nor George is leaving.

RULE6: “There” and “here” are never subjects.In sentences that begin with these words, the subject
is usually found later on in the sentence.
Example: There were five books on the shelf. (were, agrees with the subject “book”)

RULE7: Collective nouns may be singular or plural, depending on their use in the sentence.
Examples: The orchestra is playing a hit song. (Orchestra is considered as one unit—singular)
The orchestra were asked to give their musical backgrounds. (Orchestra is considered as separate
units-plural)

RULE8: Some nouns, while plural in form, are actually singular in meaning.
Example: Mathematics is (not are) an easy subject for some people.

RULE9: “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.
Example: He doesn’t(does not) like it.

RULE10: Nouns such as ‘civics’, ‘mathematics’, ‘dollars’, and ‘news’ require singular verbs.
Example: A million dollars is needed to renovate that building.

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