Subject Verb Agreement

A verb AGREES with its subject in NUMBER: Singular subjects take singular verbs and plural subjects plural verbs.

Singular Subject: The flower smells good.

Plural Subject: The flowers smell good.

The number (singular or plural) of the subject is not changed by words that come between the subject and the verb.

One of the eggs is broken.

The fear of thieves has made me flee the city.

IGNORE "of the eggs" and "of thieves"

COMPOUND SUBJECTS – when joined by ‘AND’ are PLURAL; while joined by ‘OR’ and ‘NOR’ take a verb that agrees with the LAST SUBJECT.

Bob and George are leaving.

Neither Bob nor his friends are leaving.

Neither the girls nor the boy is leaving.

COLLECTIVE NOUNS - army, crowd, orchestra, audience, flock, public, class, group, swarm, club, herd, team, committee, jury, troop - may be SINGULAR (group) or PLURAL (individual), depending on their use in the sentence.

As a group: The orchestra is playing a hit song. 

As individuals: The orchestra were asked to give their musical backgrounds.

INDEFINITE NOUNS/PRONOUNS

anyone, anybody, anything, no one, nobody, nothing, someone, somebody, something, everyone, everybody, everything, whatever, whoever, neither, each

always take a SINGULAR verb.

Someone in the game is hurt.

Somebody is bound to object.

Everyone wants to watch the movie.

Some subjects

some, any, all, most

may be singular or plural depending on their use in a sentence.

Singular Subject: Most of the news is good.

Plural Subject: Most of the flowers were yellow.

There and here are never subjects. In sentences that begin with these words, the subject is usually found later on in the sentence.

There were five books on the shelf. 

books is the subject; were is plural

Here is the report you wanted.

report is the subject; "is" is singular

Expressions of time, money, measurement and weight are usually SINGULAR when the amount is considered one unit.

As a unit: Five dollars is too much to ask.

As multiple units: There were thirty minutes to countdown.

Some nouns

scissors, trousers, mumps, economics, social studies, measles, statistics, civics, physics, gymnastics, phonics, news, acrobatics, aesthetics, thesis, mathematics

while plural in form are actually singular in meaning and some are plural!

This pair of trousers is ugly.

Civics is taught by Dr. Vaughn.

Your eyeglasses are dirty.

The scissors cut the paper easily.

‘Do’ and ‘Does’ must agree with the subject. Does is used after - he, she and it (third person singular)

and do after – they (third person plural).

Third Person Singular: Does he know how to sail?

Third Person Plural: They do make movies.