Subject–Verb Agreement with Common Challenges

Good to see you again. In the previous lesson, you learned to separate complete thoughts correctly, avoiding fused sentences and comma splices. Once sentence boundaries are in place, the next editing task is to make sure that each subject matches its verb.

This lesson focuses on subject–verb agreement in the situations most likely to cause errors in college writing: long subjects, phrases between a subject and verb, compound subjects, indefinite pronouns, sentences beginning with there, and a few nouns whose grammatical number is not obvious. These patterns appear often in health, anatomy, nutrition, and psychology writing, where sentences can include many details. Plan on about 40 minutes.

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The central rule: match the grammatical subject

Subject–verb agreement means that a singular subject takes a singular verb form and a plural subject takes a plural verb form.

In the simple present tense, English can feel backward at first:

Subject	Correct verb	Example
Singular third person: the student, she, it	usually ends in -s	The student reviews the chart.
Plural: the students, they	base form, no -s	The students review the chart.
I and you	base form, no -s	I review the chart. You review the chart.

A plural noun often ends in -s, while a plural present-tense verb usually does not:

The patient reports dizziness.
The patients report dizziness.

The same agreement distinction appears in helping verbs:

Singular	Plural
is / was	are / were
has	have
does / doesn’t	do / don’t

The nutrition label does not list enough fiber.
The nutrition labels do not list enough fiber.

Notice that the main verb after does or do stays in its base form:

Correct: The label does not list enough fiber.
Incorrect: The label does not lists enough fiber.

Watch this short section of “Subject Verb Agreement | English Lesson | Common Grammar Mistakes” from mmmEnglish for a clear review of the basic pattern, helping verbs, and the reason that verb endings can seem reversed.

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Find the real subject before choosing the verb

Most agreement errors happen not because the writer does not know is versus are, but because a nearby noun distracts the writer from the actual subject.

Consider:

The list of recommended foods is on the website.

The noun closest to the verb is foods, but the subject is list, which is singular. The phrase of recommended foods adds information about the list; it does not control the verb.

A dependable editing method is:

1. Locate the verb or helping verb.
   In The results of the survey were useful, the verb is were.

2. Ask who or what performs the action or is being described.
   What were useful? Results.

3. Cross out or mentally remove extra phrases.
   The results of the survey were useful.

4. Replace the subject with a pronoun.
   Results becomes they, so were is correct.

This works especially well with phrases beginning with of, in, with, for, among, and between.

The effects of chronic stress include sleep problems.
The effect of chronic stress includes sleep problems.

A group of students is preparing the presentation.
Several groups of students are preparing presentations.

Words and phrases such as with, along with, together with, as well as, including, and in addition to also do not make a singular subject plural:

The instructor, along with two tutors, explains the assignment.
The meal plan, including its snack options, meets the guideline.

The core subject in each sentence is singular: instructor and meal plan.

Relative clauses can contain a second verb

A longer sentence may have more than one subject–verb pair. Look at each clause separately:

The students who study regularly perform well on quizzes.

• who study regularly describes students. Because students is plural, use study.
• The main subject is students, so the main verb is perform.

Compare the singular version:

The student who studies regularly performs well on quizzes.

Do not let the extra clause prevent you from seeing the main subject–verb pair.

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Compound subjects: and, or, and nor

When two subjects are joined by and, use a plural verb in ordinary cases:

Protein and fiber support fullness after a meal.
The heart and lungs work together during exercise.

You can test this by replacing the compound subject with they:

Protein and fiber = they; they support fullness.

When subjects are joined by or or nor, the verb agrees with the subject closest to the verb.

Either the instructor or the students are leading the discussion.
Either the students or the instructor is leading the discussion.

Neither the symptoms nor the medication causes the problem.
Neither the medication nor the symptoms cause the problem.

This “nearest subject” rule is correct, but it can make a sentence awkward. In formal writing, revise if it helps clarity:

Awkward: Either the nurses or the physician is available.
Clearer: The physician is available, or the nurses are available.

Read Purdue OWL’s “Making Subjects and Verbs Agree” as a compact reference for these rules and for several other agreement patterns you will use when editing.

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Indefinite pronouns and “of” phrases

Some words refer generally to people or things but are grammatically singular. The following usually require singular verbs:

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

Everyone needs adequate sleep.
Each of the organs has a distinct function.
Neither option meets the requirement.
Somebody is waiting outside.

These words can describe many people, but grammar treats each group as one unit. For example, everyone means all people individually, yet the verb is singular:

Everyone is responsible for completing the lab-safety training.

A different pattern appears with phrases such as some of, all of, most of, half of, and percent of. Here, look at the noun after of:

Some of the water is contaminated.
Some of the samples are contaminated.

Most of the chapter is clear.
Most of the chapters are clear.

In the first sentence of each pair, the noun is singular or noncount (water, chapter), so the verb is singular. In the second, the noun is plural (samples, chapters), so the verb is plural.

With none, choose the verb that matches the intended noun and meaning:

None of the information is missing.
None of the participants are absent.

For college writing, this approach is clearer than treating none as automatically singular in every sentence.

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Subjects that appear after the verb

In a sentence beginning with there is or there are, there is not the subject. The real subject follows the verb.

There is one major concern.
There are several major concerns.

To edit this pattern, temporarily reverse the order:

There are three layers of the heart wall.

Three layers of the heart wall are there.

The reversed version may sound unnatural, but it makes the subject easy to see: three layers is plural, so use are.

This pattern is especially useful when you describe observations:

There is a visible fracture in the image.
There are visible fractures in the images.

In questions, the subject may also come after the verb:

Are the results reliable?
Is the result reliable?

Find the noun being described, rather than assuming the first word is the subject.

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Collective nouns, special nouns, and measurements

Collective nouns

A collective noun names a group: team, class, family, committee, audience, or staff.

In standard American academic English, use a singular verb when the group acts as one unit:

The research team is reviewing the data.
The class meets twice a week.
The committee has reached a decision.

If you need to emphasize individual people, make that meaning explicit by adding a plural noun:

The team members are sharing their observations.
The committee members disagree about the recommendation.

This wording is often clearer than switching between singular and plural treatment of the collective noun itself.

Nouns ending in -s that are singular

Some nouns look plural but take singular verbs:

The news is encouraging.
Mathematics is required for this program.
Diabetes is a chronic condition.

Nouns that name paired objects

Some nouns name one object but are grammatically plural:

The scissors are on the tray.
These tweezers are sterile.

However, pair is singular:

A pair of scissors is on the tray.
Two pairs of scissors are on the tray.

Amounts as one total

An amount of time, money, distance, or measurement is often treated as one unit:

Ten minutes is enough time for the task.
Twenty dollars is the cost of the workbook.
Five miles is too far to walk in the heat.

The subject is conceptually one amount, even though the number is greater than one.

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Agreement with modal verbs

Modals include can, could, may, might, must, should, will, and would. A verb after a modal always uses its base form, regardless of whether the subject is singular or plural.

The patient should drink more water.
The patients should drink more water.

The student can identify the tissue.
The students can identify the tissues.

Incorrect: The student should drinks more water.
Correct: The student should drink more water.

The modal itself does not change. The number difference is visible in the subject, not in the verb after the modal.

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Worked editing: a health-course paragraph

Read the original paragraph:

The list of symptoms include fatigue and headaches. Everyone in the study report their sleep hours each day. There is several possible explanations for the pattern. The physician and the nurses reviews the records. Neither the medication nor the side effects causes the change.

Here is the revision:

The list of symptoms includes fatigue and headaches. Everyone in the study reports their sleep hours each day. There are several possible explanations for the pattern. The physician and the nurses review the records. Neither the medication nor the side effects cause the change.

Why each change works:

Original issue	Correct reasoning
list … include	The subject is list, not symptoms. A list includes items.
Everyone … report	Everyone is grammatically singular, so it reports.
There is several explanations	The real subject is plural: several explanations.
physician and nurses reviews	Two subjects joined by and form a plural subject.
medication nor side effects causes	With nor, the verb agrees with the nearer subject: plural side effects.

The pronoun their in “Everyone in the study reports their sleep hours” is common and accepted as singular they in contemporary English. In a later lesson, you will look more closely at pronoun agreement and clear antecedents.

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A repeatable agreement check

During revision, do not rely only on what “sounds right.” Use this short process:

1. Underline the verb or helping verb in each sentence.
2. Locate its grammatical subject by asking who or what performs the action.
3. Remove interrupting phrases such as of the students, with her notes, or along with the instructor.
4. Decide whether the true subject is singular or plural.
5. Check special patterns: and; or/nor; indefinite pronouns; there is/are; collective nouns; and special plural-looking nouns.
6. Read the sentence once more to ensure the correction still says what you mean.

This approach keeps agreement editing manageable even when your anatomy, nutrition, or psychology sentences contain several details.

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Key takeaways

Subject–verb agreement depends on the grammatical subject, not simply the noun nearest the verb. In the present tense, singular third-person subjects usually take verbs ending in -s, while plural subjects take the base verb form.

The most important patterns are:

• Ignore phrases that interrupt the connection between subject and verb.
• Treat subjects joined by and as plural.
• With or and nor, match the verb to the nearer subject.
• Use singular verbs with everyone, each, someone, neither, and similar indefinite pronouns.
• In there is/are sentences, match the verb to the noun that follows it.
• Learn common special cases such as news is, scissors are, and ten minutes is.

Next, you will work with verb tense, choosing forms that keep a sentence or paragraph consistently and appropriately in the present, past, or future.