Lesson: English Grammar - 04

While We're on the Subject: Subject Verb Agreement

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When sentences become particularly sophisticated or wordy, it can become more difficult to see initially whether the subject and verb "agree." They agree when a plural subject takes a plural verb, and when a singular subject takes a singular verb. This rule is tested often, so it's a good idea always to identify the subject and verb in a sentence and see how well they get along. It's always easier to see whether the subject and verb agree when sentences are short and simple. For instance, which of the following is correct?

Example 1: The crowd assembles to greet the movie star.
Example 2: The crowd assemble to greet the movie star.

The first sentence is correct, because "crowd" is singular so it takes the singular verb "assembles."

When the subject and verb are split up by a phrase or clause, their agreement can be more difficult to determine. For instance, look at the following sentence and identify the error:

Example 3: The crowd, consisting of people from ten different states and making a lot of noise, assemble to greet the movie star.

The intervening phrase (everything between the commas, from "consisting" to "noise") adds distance between the subject and verb, and that can make it difficult to keep track of the subject by the time you get to that verb. Nevertheless, "crowd" is still singular, so the verb still needs to be "assembles," not "assemble," no matter what information the test-makers stick between them.

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