Subject-Verb Agreement

What are subjects and verbs?

The cat chases the mouse.

● The subject is the person or thing that carries out an action.

○ The cat chases the mouse.
● The verb is the action word
○ The cat chases the mouse.

Every subject has a verb.

Singular and plural subjects
Subjects can be singular or plural.
● The cat (singular) vs. the cats (plural)

Verbs can also be singular or plural.

● The singular form of a verb always ends in –s or –es
● Examples: is/are, swims/swim, has/have, does/do

If a subject is singular, its verb

The rule of Subject-Verb Agreement: must be singular. If a subject is
plural, its verb must be plural.
 subject verb

The cat chases the mouse.

singular singular
ends in -s

The cats chase the mouse.

plural plural
no -s
Practice

● The alarm clock wake/wakes me up. 1. Identify the subject and

● The car drive/drives away. its verb.
2. Is the subject singular or
plural?
3. Match the verb to the
subject
Interrupting phrases
● Cross out unnecessary phrases that come between the subject and the verb
● Often separated by commas:

The rare green parrot, along with many other exotic

animals, live in New Zealand.

The rare green parrot, along with many other exotic

animals, lives in New Zealand.

The rare green parrot lives in New Zealand.

singular singular
ends in –s
Interrupting phrases
Relative clauses
● Start with “who”, “which”, or “that”

○ The Milky Way, which is a galaxy, is filled with stars.

Prepositional phrases:
● Provide additional information about the subject
● Start with prepositions such as “with”, “by”, “in”, “on”, “for”, or “of”

○ Films by Miyazaki

○ The building with the blue windows

Practice
●● The
The house
house with
with the
the white
white shutters
shutters needs
needs
to
to be
be painted.
need/needs
painted.
to be painted. 1. Identify the subject and
its verb.
●● The
The student,
student, as
as well
well as
as the
the research
research 2. Is the subject singular or
committee,
committee, was
was delighted
was/were
delighted by
by the
delighted findings.
theby
findings.
the plural?
findings. 3. Match the verb to the
●● The
The bouquet
bouquet of
of flowers,
flowers, which
which my
my mother
mother subject
● gave
The me,
me, brightens
gavebouquet up the
brighten/brightens
of flowers, room.
which
upmythemother
room.
gave me, brighten/brightens up the room.
Helping verbs
● Sometimes you may come across helping verbs, which are necessary to form
certain tenses.

has seen
was forgotten
is watching
have been

● The helping verb must agree with the subject.

Practice
● The peanut butter jar was/were placed in
the refrigerator. 1. Identify the subject and
its verb.
● The few ideas that I came up with last 2. Is the subject singular or
night has/have given my team enough to plural?
work with. 3. Match the verb to the
subject
Verbs inside interrupting phrases
● Sometimes, the verb may be located within a phrase you’d normally cross
out.

○ I ate the apple, which was very sweet, before the rest of the fruits.

● In this case, think carefully about what the subject is

○ What was very sweet? The apple.

Practice
● They rode the bus, which is/are bright
red, to school today. 1. Identify the subject and
its verb.
● Where are the cookies that was/were in 2. Is the subject singular or
the cookie jar? plural?
3. Match the verb to the
subject
The mechanism by which whales and other aquatic mammals – dolphins, seals
and porpoises – swims were determined from sonar patterns recorded during
deep sea diving expeditions.

A. swims were determined from

B. swims were determined by

C. swims was determined from

D. swim was determined by

E. swim were determined by

The mechanism by which
were whales and
determined fromother
sonaraquatic mammals
patterns – during
recordedswims were
dolphins, seals
deep sea
determined from
and porpoises
diving – swims
sonar patterns
expeditions. recordedfrom
were determined during deeppatterns
sonar sea diving expeditions.
recorded during
deep sea diving expeditions.
subject verb

The mechanism were determined

singular plural
no –s

The mechanism was determined

singular singular
ends in –s
The mechanism by which whales and other aquatic mammals – dolphins, seals
and porpoises – swims were determined from sonar patterns recorded during
deep sea diving expeditions.
subject verb

Whales and other aquatic mammals swims

plural singular
ends in –s

Whales and other aquatic mammals swim

plural plural
no –s
The mechanism by which whales and other aquatic mammals – dolphins, seals
and porpoises – swims were determined from sonar patterns recorded during
deep sea diving expeditions.

● Determined by = caused by

● Determined from = figured out from

Recap
● If a subject is singular, its verb must be singular. If a subject is plural, its verb
must be plural.

● Cross out interrupting phrases between the subject and the verb.

● Helping verbs (has/have, was/were, is/are) must agree with the subject.

● Always think carefully about which subject the verb belongs to.