1. Subject-Verb Agreement
Grammar

2. Rule
Subjects and verbs must agree with one another in number (singular or plural).
If a subject is plural, the verb must also be plural.

3. Present Tense
Nouns and verbs form plurals in opposite ways: nouns add an “s” to become plural, but verbs remove the “s” to become plural
Ex: The dog chases the cat.
Singular (no “s”) singular (adds “s”)
The dogs chase the cat.
Plural (adds “s”) plural (no “s”)

4. Past Tense
When using past tense without a helping verb, the verb will not change.
Ex: He helped.
*Notice he is singular while they is plural, but the verb remains the same.
They helped.

5. Have and Has
When using have and has as the first helping verb, they will use the same rule as the present tense verbs (have is plural, has is singluar).
If being used in the middle of a verb phrase, “have” will always be used.
Ex: The girl has talked to me.
The girls have talked to me.
The girls could have talked to me.
The girl could have talked to me.

6. Compound Subjects
When compound subjects are joined by “and,” they will always use the plural form of the verb.
Ex: The ranger and the camper see the bear.
The rangers and the campers see the bear.
When the compound subjects are joined by “or” or “nor,” they will use the original present tense rule (singular subject=singular verb and plural subject=plural verb)
Ex: The ranger or the camper sees the bear.
The rangers or the campers see the bear.

7. 1 Singular Subject, 1 Plural Subject
If one part of the compound subject is singular and the other part is plural and they are joined by “or” or “nor,” then the verb will agree with the subject closer to the verb.
Ex: The ranger and the campers see the bear.
The rangers and the camper sees the bear.
The rangers, the explorers, or the camper sees the bear.

8. Group Nouns
Some nouns refer to groups (ex. Club, jury, company, team, army, government, family, group, etc.)
If we refer to the group as a whole, we will use a singular verb.
Ex: The club is meeting today.
A singular unit singular

9. Group Nouns (cont)
Group nouns can also appear in plural forms (dealing with more than one group). We will use plural verb forms in these cases.
Ex: The clubs are having a meeting today.
More than one group plural
On occasion, group nouns can refer to its individual members, thus requiring a plural verb.

10. Tricky Little Nouns!
Some nouns look plural in form but are singular in meaning (ex: news, measles, politics).
Even though these look plural, they are singular in meaning which requires a singular verb.
Ex: The news looks good today.
singular meaning singular verb

11. Indefinite Pronouns
Indefinite pronouns act differently. The following indefinite pronouns will always take singular verbs:
Either, neither, other, anybody, anyone, anything, somebody, someone, something, everybody, everyone, everything, nobody, no one, nothing, each, one
Ex: Everybody sees the value of the course.

12. More Indefinite Pronouns
These indefinite pronouns always take plural verbs:
Both, few, many, several, others
Ex: Many indicate that they will be late.

13. And again…Indefinite Pronouns
These indefinite pronouns will take either a singular or plural verb depending on the pronoun’s meaning in the sentence (use prepositional phrases to determine the meaning):
Some, any, none, all, most
Ex: Some of the kids ran away.

14. Dependent Clauses
Pay attention to dependent clauses that come between your independent clause’s subject and verb.
Ex. Anyone {who sees his or her friends} runs to greet them.

15. Inverted Subjects and Verbs
Remember that sentences starting with here or there, the verb will come before the subject, but its number is still based off of that subject.
Remember that with questions, the subject will come after or in the middle of the verb phrase, but its number is till based off of that subject.

16. Now you’re masters, right?
Although this sounds like a lot, you know most of this already. Try to use common sense to work your way through some of the simple ones. You may not need to over-think it!