Subject Verb Agreement

What is the Subject Verb Agreement?

Subject Verb Agreement means that in our sentences the subject and the verb must agree with each other.  

• When the subject is singular the verb has an “-s” ending.
• When the subject is plural, the verb has no “-s” ending.

For example:

• A decision has been taken. (“decision” is singular, so “has”)
• Some decisions have been taken. (“decisions” is plural, so “have”)

Sometimes we don’t understand the singular and plural forms of certain words such as police, news, scissors etc.  

For example:

• The police are patrolling the area day and night. (Police describes a collection of police officers. This means it has no singular form and always uses a plural verb.) 
• The news is that he has been arrested. (The word “news” is considered singular and uncountable. So, we use the singular forms of verbs, like is and was)
• The scissors are lying on the table. (“scissors” has no singular form)

In each of these sentences, we have used the verb form that agrees with the subject.

Similarly, words like everyone, everybody, everything are singular and take singular verb forms..

For example:

• Everyone is so supportive.
• Everybody loves you for your humble nature.
• Everything looks fresh after it rains.

Watch the full video to understand many other subject verb agreement rules in detail.