Recipe

Check subject-verb agreement

Use when: you need to confirm a verb matches its subject, especially when the subject is buried in a longer phrase, is an indefinite pronoun, a collective noun, or part of an or-nor pair

Goal: the verb form that matches the sentence's true subject, not the noun that happens to sit closest to it

Taught in Tricky Subjects

1. 1

   Strip out every phrase or word sitting between the subject and the verb, at least in your head. Keep going until only the bare subject is left.

   Example

   The shelf of old novels creaks when you step on it. Strip out of old novels -- it's just a phrase describing which shelf. What's left is the shelf... creaks. Shelf is the true subject, not novels.

   Why: the verb agrees with the noun doing the action, and once a phrase is wedged in, that is rarely the noun sitting in front of the verb.

2. 2

   Match the subject you found in Step 1 against the four traps this chapter named.

   Example

   Each of the voters has a copy of the form. Each is an indefinite pronoun, singular, always -- so has, not have, even with voters sitting right in front of the verb. Neither the coach nor the players were ready. Players, the closer half, decides the verb. Swap the order to neither the players nor the coach and the closer noun becomes coach; the verb flips to was.

   • an ordinary noun or pronoun — count it at face value. One thing takes the singular verb; more than one takes the plural verb.
   • an indefinite pronoun (everyone, everybody, someone, somebody, anyone, anybody, no one, nobody, each, either, neither) — treat it as singular, always, no matter how big a crowd it seems to describe.
   • a collective noun (team, family, committee, jury, staff, class) — your choice. Singular if you mean the group as one unit, plural if you mean its members acting on their own. Keep that same choice for every later verb or pronoun pointing back at it.
   • a compound subject joined by "and" — always plural. And adds the two subjects into one larger group.
   • a compound subject joined by "or"/"nor" (including either...or, neither...nor) — match whichever half sits closer to the verb, never the compound as a whole.

   Why: each of these four patterns overrides the plain "count the subject" instinct in its own way. Misreading which pattern you're in, not a failure to count, causes almost every real agreement error.

3. 3

   Once Step 2 has settled singular or plural, pick the matching verb form. The singular present-tense form usually ends in -s (walks, checks, is, has). The plural form doesn't (walk, check, are, have).

   Why: this is the repair; everything before it was diagnosis. A correct diagnosis with the wrong verb form leaves the sentence broken.

4. 4

   Read the sentence back with the tricky part removed in your head: the intervening phrase, the indefinite pronoun, or the farther half of the compound. Check that the verb still sounds right against just the true subject.

   Example

   The results of the survey surprise everyone. Reread it as the results... surprise everyone. Plural subject, plural verb, confirmed -- even with survey, a singular word, sitting closer to the verb in the original sentence.

   Why: this final reread catches a mismatch fast, before it goes any further. It helps most on whichever of the four traps you find least automatic.