Verb Notes-1 [Level-6]
Subject - verb agreement:
Singular subject - singular verb
Plural subject - plural verb
for 3rd person only with simple present tense verbs
Examples:
The man goes to office by bus. (3rd person singular subject - singular verb)
The men go to office by bus. (3rd person plural subject - plural verb)
Rule #1:
Nouns like food, clothing, furniture or stationery are taken as singular and so the verb will always be singular.
Examples:
Rule #2:
“A pair of socks/jeans/trousers” = singular subject. So, verb = singular.
Examples:
Rule #3:
‘A lot of’ / ‘plenty of’ - uncountable nouns - the verb is singular.
‘A lot of’ / ‘plenty of’ - countable nouns - the verb is plural. Examples:
Rule #4:
‘Much’ - ‘a little’ - ‘news’ always take the singular verb while ‘people’ - ‘police’ - ‘cattle’ are always considered as plural and so will take the plural form of the verb.
Examples:
Rule #5:
When the sentence starts with 'There' the verb will agree with the actual subject of the sentence.
Examples
Rule #6:
When words like ‘one of - ‘each’ - ‘either’ - ‘neither’ - ‘everyone’ are used in the subject, the verb which follows is always singular.
Examples:
Rule #7:
When two subjects are joined with "as well as" or "with" the verb will always agree with the number of the first noun (subject):
Examples:
Rule #8:
If the subjects are taken as one unit then the verb will be singular. Collective nouns are also considered as a single unit and hence the verb that follows will always be singular.
Examples:
Rule #9:
If the two subjects refer to the one and the same noun the verb that follows is always singular:
Examples:
Rule #10:
If the subject and the following verb are separated by some words, then the verb must agree with the number of the subject.
Examples:
Rule #11:
Even if the name of a country, a book, a film, etc. is denoted by a plural noun, the verb which follows will always be singular.
Examples:
Rule #12:
When a plural number is used for distance, weight and amounts of money as a single figure, it is regarded as a singular subject and hence the verb that will follow will take the singular form.
Examples:
Click here for Exercise-1