Agreement (Subject/Verb)

Would you recognize the following sentence as nonstandard?

Nonstandard

The idea involving thirteen separate judging systems seem faulty.

When you are writing a sentence with a very long subject (“the idea involving thirteen separate judging systems”), it’s easy to make a subject / verb agreement mistake, putting a plural subject with a singular verb or vice versa.

When you see a long subject, you need to search for the core of it or what’s called the simple subject. The core of this long subject is the word “idea,” which is a singular noun, which takes the singular verb “seems” instead of the current plural verb “seem.” There are tips below to help you find the simple subject.

Standard

The idea involving thirteen separate judging systems seems faulty.

Subject / verb agreement errors are often made because the singular verb form adds s in the present tense for some subjects.

Some of your ideas may need complex sentence structures, so keep track of the subject as you write. Here are the rules to be aware of.

Here’s a nonstandard sentence to examine.

Nonstandard

Only one of the dozens of great performances win the Oscar.

At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be a subject / verb agreement problem in this sentence. Intuitively, it sounds okay because the noun before the plural verb “win”
is the plural word “performances.”

What’s the problem? The subject part of the sentence is very long (“only one of the dozens of great performances”). However, when you whittle the subject part of the sentence down to its core or simple subject, you actually have the word “one,” a singular noun.

The nouns “dozens” and “performances” are the objects of prepositional phrases: “of the dozens” and “of great performances.” Prepositions link noun objects to the rest of the sentence.
The following is a list of some common prepositions that you should know.

Take a look at the following sentences. Note that the simple subject and the verb that agrees with it are in bold. Ignoring the prepositional phrases will enable you to see the subject / verb agreement more clearly.

Standard

A representative of the organization the First Peoples of Canadian Provinces is speaking today.

This collection of the works of one thousands writers is fabulously lengthy

Only one of the hundreds of applicants gets the job.

Would you have recognized the following as nonstandard?

Nonstandard

Either Tyrell’s parents or his grandma are attending his voice recital.

Because of the “either . . . or,” we treat the word “grandma,” which is closest to the verb, as the subject of the verb and must make it agree with the verb by making both singular.

Standard

Either Tyrell’s parents or his grandma is attending his voice recital.

Here are examples of standard sentences with either…or and neither…nor.

Standard

Either Rachel or a thousand clowns drop from the sky at this point.

Standard

Neither a thousand clowns nor Rachel wishes to drop from the sky.

Here are examples of standard sentences with or and nor. Note that these constructions are somewhat archaic.

Standard

All Mondays or this Thursday is a good time to meet.

Standard

Neither your threat nor his violent words alarm me in the least.

Standard

Neither his violent words nor your threat alarms me in the least.

In some sentences, the subject itself will be either either or neither. In such cases, use a singular verb with these singular subjects.

Standard

Neither of these concepts is hard to grasp.

Standard

Do I want the nails or the screws? Either does the job.

In the two sentences above, “either” and “neither” are singular indefinite pronouns. The list below contains other singular indefinite pronouns; each takes a singular verb.

Standard

Everybody in the seven continents that make up the world is unique.

None of the kittens is allowed in the kitchen.

Nothing except the fifteen ninjas stands in my way.

Plural indefinite pronouns, by contrast, take a plural verb.

Standard

Few of these concepts are hard to grasp.

Standard

Do I want the nails or the screws? Both do the job.

Standard Sentences

The crowd of seven billion spectators is going wild.

The team is doing well this year.

The study group has met three times this semester.

The Shakespeare Association of America is having its annual meeting in Minneapolis.

When you use the phrases there is or there are, the subject follows the verb. To test this, try reversing the sentence below.

Standard

There are two reasons to avoid procrastination.

Reversed, it would read as follows: “Two reasons to avoid procrastination are there.” The subject is “Two reasons to avoid procrastination.”

If the subject is singular, use “there is”; if it’s plural, use “there are.”

Standard

There is a simple solution to the difficulty.