Subject Verb Agreement

1
Subject / Verb Agreement

• An End-of-Course Exam Topic

2
Which verb completes each sentence?
Question Is each subject singular or plural?
Question What conclusions can we draw?

• He (take, takes) music lessons.
• They (take, takes) music lessons.
• My dog (sleep, sleeps) in the hallway beside the
  kitchen.
• Both dogs (sleep, sleeps) in the hallway beside
  the kitchen.

3
Three things to remember

• Like nouns, verbs can be both singular and
  plural.
• Singular verbs end in s
• In order for your subject and your verb to agree
• Singular subjects must have a singular verb
  (s ending).
• Plural subjects must have a plural verb.
• Do not rely on what sounds right! Trust the rules
  and your answer will be correct.

4
Are these singular or plural?

• student
• pencils
• Ipod
• children
• desks

• everyone
• someone
• neither
• all
• no one

5
Indefinite Pronouns
6
How can you tell if these are singular or plural?

• Most of the cereal (is, are) gone.
• Most of the students (is, are) quiet today.
• Some of the instruments (sound, sounds) great.
• Some of his lunch (was, were) eaten.

• Either
• Singular or
• Plural
• All
• Any
• More
• Most
• None
• Some

7
Indefinite Pronouns
Look at the prepositional phrase
8
Create this chart

• Subject Verb

9
Review S/V Agreement

• Fossils (is,are) fascinating records of the past.
• They (tells, tell) us about plants and animals of
  long ago.
• A dinosaur fossil (preserve, preserves) a tooth,
  a bone, or even a major part of the skeleton.
• Different theories (exist, exists) about how
  dinosaurs became extinct.
• Fossil evidence (shows, show) that a many
  dinosaurs died in a short period of time.

10
Review S/V Agreement (with prepositional
phrases)

• The rain forests of the earth (occur, occurs) in
  places where there is much rainfall.
• The rain forest ecosystem, to biologists, (is,
  are) the source of much diversity.
• The area around a rain forest (is filled, are
  filled) with mosses, vines, and many other
  water-loving plants.
• An explorer of the rain forests also (thrills,
  thrill) at the wide variety of colorful birds.
• Not every traveler to these tropical paradises
  (focuses, focus) on animals.

11
Review S/V Agreement(with other phrases
between the subject and verb)

• Folk, in addition to rock, (is, are) my favorite
  music.
• Weight lifting, as well as wrestling (take,
  takes) strength.
• The players, plus the coach and manager, (travel,
  travels) by bus.
• Nancy, plus her parents and grandparents, (go,
  goes) to Florida for the holidays.
• The bike, plus the skates and skis, (belong,
  belongs) to Jeremy.