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It is important to understand subject verb agreement for IELTS.

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Subject Verb Agreement

It is important to understand subject verb agreement for IELTS.

If you are making errors with this in your writing or speaking, it will be very noticeable as it is a very basic error.

For example, take a look at this paragraph which has errors with subject verb agreement:
Some people argue that leaving people in prison for a long time that they will mix with other criminals and so their character will not improve. The alternative community service. This gives an offender the opportunity to give something positive back to society, and so it may their character. Also, the government could focus its resources on the causes of crime, which would to less crime in the future.

The Basic Rules

These are the basic rules of subject verb agreement:

1) For a singular third person (he / she / it) in the present tense, the verb must have an -s ending:

2) Different formations are used for the irregular verb 'to be', but an -s is still used for the third person singular

However, these are just the basic rules.

There are other things that are important to understand in order to ensure you are using subject verb agreement correctly in all contexts and some things that are confusing.

We'll look at some of these now.

There is and There are

When you use there is and there are, 'there' is never the subject. The subject is the word that comes after the verb.

Therefore, you need to look at that word to decide if the verb is singular or plural.

There are several reasons why we must tackle the problem of global warming. There is one main reason we must tackle global warming.

What sometimes confuses people is when there are several nouns after the verb. It is common to make the mistake of using a plural verb. In fact, the verb should agree with only the first noun.

Take a look at this simple example:

In each of these examples, you just need to look at the first noun to decide if the subject is singular or plural - you can ignore the ones after this.

Separated Subjects

Another common mistake is when the subject is separated from the verb by a prepositional phrase, relative clause, or reduced relative clause.

A mistake is to make the verb agree with the last noun in the phrase or clause rather than the subject of the sentence:

It should not agree with 'cities' as this is part of the prepositional phrase.

Here are some more examples of correct subject verb agreement (the phrase or clause that should be ignored for purposes of agreement is in brackets):

Expressions of Quantity

Another difficult area with subject verb agreement is dealing with quantities.

When a quantity word is followed by a prepositional phrase, it can follow the rules above i.e. the verb agrees with the subject (the quantity):

However, for some quantity phrases you do need to refer to the noun in the prepositional phrase to decide if the verb is singular or plural:

Neither and Either

With these phrases, the verb must agree with the noun that is closest to the verb:

Indefinite Pronouns as subjects

A common mistake is made in subject verb agreement with indefinite pronouns as people often assume they must take a plural verb because they refer to more than one thing.

Here are some common examples of indefinite pronouns:

Modal Verbs

Modal verbs are always followed by the bare infinitive, so in this case the third person singular no longer takes a singular verb:

Gerunds

Gerunds ( verbs that function as nouns by adding -ing) always take a singular subject. Remember to look at the gerund, not the noun that may come between the gerund and the verb:

Now check your knowledge in this quiz:

Subject Verb Agreement Quiz

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Subject-verb agreement is generally quite straightforward in English. Check any handbook for the general rules. However, with subjects that introduce the idea of quantity, some additional rules of thumb are needed. Here are a few that are useful for academic writing.

With fractions, percentages and indefinite quantifiers (e.g., all, few, many, much, some), the verb agrees with the preceding noun or clause:

With a singular or non-count noun or clause, use a singular verb:

One-third of this article is taken up with statistical analysis.

Much of the book seems relevant to this study.

Half of what he writes is undocumented.

Fifty percent of the job is routine.

All the information is current

With a plural noun, use a plural verb:

One-third of the students have graduate degrees.

Many researchers depend on grants from industry.

Half of his articles are peer-reviewed.

Fifty percent of the computers have CD-ROM drives.

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With a collective noun, use either a singular or a plural verb, depending on whether you want to emphasize the single group or its individual members:

Half of my family lives/live in Canada.

All of the class is/are here.

Ten percent of the population is/are bilingual.

The words majority and minority are used in a variety of ways:

When majority/minority mean an unspecified number more or less than 50%, use a singular verb:

When majority/minority mean a specific percentage, you may use either a singular or a plural verb:

When majority/minority refers to a specified set of persons, use a plural verb:

Expressions of time, money and distance usually take a singular verb:

Adjectives preceded by the and used as plural nouns take a plural verb:

Expressions using the phrase number of depend on the meaning of the phrase:

They take a singular verb when referring to a single quantity:

The number of students registered in the class is 20.

They take plural verbs when they are used as indefinite quantifiers (see rule 1 above):

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