Verb-Subject Agreement Standard

Bell Work Underline the subject(s) of each sentence below. Box the verb(s) in each sentence below. 1. Dan and Carly ride their bikes to work every day. 2. Spencer builds award-winning machines for his school’s Robotics Team. 3. Gianna voted for Tyler for Senior Class President. 4. Roger asked Phil for a slice of his famous apple pie.

Subject Vs. Verb Subject: The person or thing that is doing or being something in a sentence. Ex. The dog caught the frisbee. Verb: An action or state of being; what the subject is doing. Ex. Paul and Jordan sang Christmas carols in the school concert.

Find the SUBJECTS!!! The president, who was a fighter pilot, taught for 10 years at West Point. Everyone wished today was a snow day. After the game, the coach bought his players hamburgers and hotdogs. In the Philippines, most people speak English as a second language.

Read these sentences. Can you figure out what’s wrong with them? The bus driver take the kids to school. They is reading West Side Story. The band play during the football game.

This is called Verb-Subject Agreement A verb MUST agree with its subject in number. If a subject is singular, the verb must be singular. Beth (volunteer/volunteers) at the soup kitchen. If the subject is plural, the verb must be plural. Her friends (volunteer/volunteers) at the ShadyBrook Retirement Home.

On your white boards, make the verbs and subjects agree. John was/were happy. The children watches/watch television. The beaches of Brazil is/are beautiful.

Good! But…what if you have compound subjects?! Compound subjects: a subject that contains more than one noun. Victor and Michael run/runs track for Team U.S.A . Katy and her sisters meet/meets at Applebee’s each Friday for dinner.

Compound Subjects Can be connected with “and,” “or,” or “nor.” Each has its own agreement rule. If the compound subject uses AND to connect, it is plural. Why? Lia and Ramon carry/carries the school’s banner in the Memorial Day parade. If the compound subject uses OR or NOR to connect, the verb must agree with the subject closest to it. Why? Either band members or Mr. Katz need/needs to collect the flags.

More practice with compound subjects Neither John nor his friends (want/wants) to go to school on Friday. I don’t know whether the candles or the fruit basket (is/are) the secretary’s gift this year. John and his co-worker (plays/play) Santa Claus and his elf at the Christmas party.

What if it gets totally tricky though? Most of the people (like/likes) the concert. Nobody (see/sees) the airplane. Someone (borrow/borrows) a pencil everyday in Miss Pap’s class. Each of the windows (has been/have been) washed.

Let’s practice! INDIVIDUALLY: On the small worksheet that you received, write “A” if the subject and verb agree in number. If they do NOT, rewrite the sentence to make it correct.

Swap sheets with someone near you Let’s correct it together. Correct your partner’s sheet as we go over it as a class.

Homework Due tomorrow! 15 question worksheet identifying and correcting subject-verb agreement.

Exit Slip: Write your own! Quickly write your own sentence with a compound subject on your white board! MAKE SURE THAT YOUR SUBJECTS AND VERBS AGREE! Hold it up when you’re done!