TEAS 7 · English and Language Usage · 5 min read
Agreement: Subjects, Verbs and Pronouns
- Identify correct subject-verb agreement across standard, compound, inverted, and intervening sentence structures.
- Determine whether indefinite pronouns, collective nouns, and special noun forms require singular or plural verbs and pronouns.
- Apply rules of pronoun-antecedent agreement while distinguishing true possessive pronouns from contractions and homophones.
Core Rules of Subject-Verb Agreement and Intervening Words
In English grammar, a singular subject requires a singular verb, while a plural subject requires a plural verb. In the present tense, third-person singular verbs typically end in -s or -es. In contrast, simple present third-person plural subjects take the base form of most verbs rather than the third-person singular -s or -es form. For example, a single nurse works, but multiple nurses work.
A common challenge occurs when other words separate the subject from the verb. Prepositional phrases located between a subject and its verb do not affect subject-verb agreement. Writers must look past these descriptive phrases to locate the true subject of the sentence and match it to the verb accordingly.
Similarly, intervening phrases introduced by 'as well as,' 'along with,' or 'together with' do not make a singular subject plural. Even though these phrases add extra information about other people or items, the grammatical subject remains singular. Therefore, the verb must maintain its singular form.
Additionally, when a gerund or gerund phrase acts as the subject of a sentence, it requires a singular verb. Even if the gerund phrase mentions plural items within its phrasing, the action described by the gerund functions as a singular concept.
Common mistakes
- Mistaking intervening prepositional phrases or additions like 'along with' and 'as well as' for parts of the grammatical subject.
- Inserting an apostrophe into possessive pronouns to create non-standard forms like 'your's,' 'her's,' or 'their's.'
- Confusing contractions such as 'it's,' 'who's,' and 'they're' with possessive determiners like 'its,' 'whose,' and 'their.'
- Shifting pronoun person mid-sentence, such as switching from the third-person impersonal 'one' to the second-person 'you.'
Key points
- In the simple present, third-person singular subjects generally take verbs ending in -s or -es, while plural subjects generally take base verb forms; irregular verbs such as 'be' have different forms.
- Prepositional phrases and phrases introduced by 'as well as,' 'along with,' or 'together with' do not alter the number of the subject.
- With 'or,' 'nor,' 'either...or,' and 'neither...nor,' the verb generally agrees with the nearer subject; if antecedents differ in number, choose a pronoun that clearly refers to the intended antecedent or recast the sentence.
- Indefinite pronouns like 'each' and '-one'/'-body'/'-thing' compounds are singular; 'both,' 'few,' 'many,' and 'several' are plural; others depend on the prepositional object.
- Collective nouns generally take singular verbs and 'it'/'its' when treated as a unit; plural agreement or 'they'/'their' may be used when emphasizing individual members, particularly in British English.
- Possessive forms such as 'its,' 'whose,' 'theirs,' and 'yours' have no apostrophe, unlike the contractions 'it's,' 'who's,' 'they're,' and 'you're'; other pronouns can have apostrophized possessive forms, such as 'one's.'
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