Sentence Agreement

Walk This Way

Now you know the main rules of agreement, so the rest of this business must be a piece of cake. Not so fast. Follow these three steps to check whether subjects and verbs in your sentences really agree:

1. Find the sentence's subject.
2. Figure out if the subject is singular or plural.
3. Select the appropriate verb form to match the form of the subject.

Here's where the problems occur:

1. Figuring out what is the subject.
2. Figuring out if the subject is singular or plural.
3. Selecting the appropriate verb form to match the form of the subject.

Let's look at each step in the process.

Hide and Seek

Some subjects can be harder to find than Judge Crater, Bigfoot, or Jimmy Hoffa. Foremost among these hard-to-find subjects is the subject that has the nerve to come after the verb. Inverted word order can make it difficult to find the true subject. But wherever the subject is, it still must agree in number with its verb, as these examples show:

• On the top of the hill are two Elvis impersonators.

• The plural subject impersonators agrees with the plural verb are.

• There are still several agitators in the audience.

• The plural subject agitators requires the plural verb are.

Another tricky agreement situation occurs with linking verbs. As with all other verbs, a linking verb always agrees with its subject. Problems crop up when the subject and the linking verb (the predicate nominative) are not the same number. For example, the subject can be plural but the linking verb can be singular. Here's an example:

• Speeding trucks are one reason for the abundance of fresh produce in our grocery stores.

• The plural subject trucks agrees with the plural verb are. Don't be tricked by the singular predicate nominative reason.

• One reason for the abundance of fresh produce in our grocery stores is speeding trucks.

• Here, the singular subject reason agrees with the singular verb is. Here, the plural noun trucks is the predicate nominative.

Playing the Numbers

As you learned in the beginning of this section, in grammar, number refers to the two forms of a word: singular (one) or plural (more than one). With nouns, number is relatively easy to figure out. That's because most nouns form the plural by adding -s or -es. Here are some examples.

You learned the few exceptions in Parts of Speech (deer, oxen, men, women, feet, and so on). There are more tricky plural words listed in Guide to Spelling: Hooked on Phonics.

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me a Match

Forget everything you learned about nouns when you start dealing with verbs. That's because we add -s or -es to the third-person singular form of most verbs. This is opposite to the way we form singular nouns. For example:

The helping verbs are even nastier because they aren't regular. The following chart shows the forms of to be.

As a result, subject-verb agreement is most tricky in the present tense.

Mix and Match

You know the drill, so sharpen your pencils and get crackin' with the following 10 items. In each case, choose the verb that agrees with the subject.

Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style © 2003 by Laurie E. Rozakis, Ph.D.. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

To order this book direct from the publisher, visit the Penguin USA website or call 1-800-253-6476. You can also purchase this book at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

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