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Although the two previous sections dealt with the kinds of sentences in which most subject-verb agreement errors occur, there are several other occasional problems that you need to be aware of to edit your writing properly. This section is divided into examples of when to use singular verbs for agreement, when to use plural verbs for agreement, and when—depending on the meaning of the sentence—to use verbs of either number.

To have subject-verb agreement, use singular verbs

with nouns that appear plural because they end in “s” but which are clearly referring to one thing.

Sample sentence, “Sue’s contact lens is tinted blue.” has a red arrow from “lens” to “is”. Sample sentence, “Physics takes more work than any other class.” has a red arrow from “Physics” to “takes”. Sample sentence, “The good news gives us hope.” has a red arrow from “news” to “gives”.

with titles.

Sample sentence, “When I was a child, ‘Holes’ was my favorite book.” has a red arrow from “‘Holes’” to “was”. Sample sentence, “‘Lessons and Maneuvers’ is the best article in the magazine.” has a red arrow from “‘Lessons and Maneuvers’” to “is”.

with sums of money or periods of time.

Sample sentence, “Fifteen dollars is too much to pay for a medium pizza.” has a red arrow from “Fifteen dollars” to “is”. Sample sentence, “Unfortunately, two hours was the time limit for writing this essay.” has a red arrow from “two hours” to “was”.

To have subject-verb agreement, use plural verbs with

nouns such as pants, glasses, trousers, scissors, and pliers, unless they are preceded by the phrase pair of. In that case, pair is the subject and, strangely enough, is a singular noun that calls for a singular verb.

Sample sentece, “His glasses were too big for his tiny face.” has a red arrow from “glasses” to “were”. Sample sentence, “His pair of glasses was too big for his tiny face.” has a red arrow from “pair” to “was”. Sample lesson, “Good scissors are razor sharp.” has a red arrow from “scissors” to “are”. Sample sentence “A pair of good scissors is razor sharp.” has a red arrow from “pair” to “is”.

In order to have subject-verb agreement—and depending on the meaning and structure of the sentence—use either singular or plural verbs with

collective nouns. In most sentences, a collective noun refers to a group as a single unit, so it needs a singular verb. Ask yourself if the group is doing something together as a whole.

Sample sentece, “My family eats at Mom’s house every Sunday.” has a red arrow from “family” to “eats”. Sample sentece, “Much to Sara’s surprise, the class adopts her plan.” has a red arrow from “class” to “adopts”.

Occasionally, however, a collective noun refers to the group as individual members, so it needs a plural verb. Ask yourself if the unit members are acting individually.

Sample sentece, “The choir never agree on which songs to sing.” has a red arrow from “choir” to “agree”. Sample sentece, “I watch as the flock fly off in various directions.” has a red arrow from “flock” to “fly”.

words that indicate portions or fractional parts (for example, two-thirds, percent, half of, part, majority, remainder). The number of the verb depends on the meaning of the sentence.

Sample sentece, “Half of the vegetables are gone.” has a red arrow from “Half” to “are”. Sentence hint: “Half” refers to plural “vegetables”. Sample sentence, “Half of the pie is gone.” has a red arrow from “Half” to “is”. Sentence hint: “Half” refers to singular “pie”.

inverted sentences. When a sentence is flip-flopped, and the verb comes before the subject rather than following it, finding the subject and verb and making sure they agree can be challenging. Inversion usually occurs in one of three situations.

Questions have the subject after the verb.

Sample sentence, “Was the response positive or negative?” has a red arrow from “response” to “Was”. Sample sentence, “Are the three doors open?” has a red arrow from “doors” to “Are”.

Hint: It’s easier to find the subject and verb if you make the question into a declarative statement, such as "The response was positive or negative" or "The three doors are open."

Sentences that start with here or there have the subject after the verb. Here and there are not nouns or pronouns, so they will never be subjects; therefore, in a sentence beginning with one of those words, the actual subject is after the verb.

Sample sentence, “Here is my resignation.” has a red arrow from “resignation” to “is”, Sample sentence, “Here are the magazines from home.” has a red arrow from “magazines” to “are”. Sample sentence, “There is no escape to the outside world.” has an arrow from “escape” to “is”. Sample sentence, “There are many reasons for staying.” has a red arrow from “reasons” to “are”.

Sometimes writers invert sentences to get a reader’s attention or to emphasize a word, phrase, or idea. Again, it is easier to locate the subject and verb if you rearrange the sentence so the subject comes before the verb.

Sample sentence, “In the gutter were her tattered shoes.” has a red arrow from “shoes” to “were”. Sample sentence, “With power comes great responsibility.” has a red arrow from “responsibility” to “comes”. Sample sentence, “Dark is the moonless night.” has a red arrow from “night” to “is”.

Before you test yourself on how well you understood this entire lesson, you might want to go to the subject-verb agreement exercises on this interactive site and do some extra practice.

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