1.

Subject-Verb Agreement
A. Simple
Simple or straightforward cases are easy. These rarely cause any confusion for most people. The subject is very clear, either obviously singular or blatantly plural. See the examples below: Shirley eats an apple every morning. Shirley is the subject. One person, singular. Eats is the corresponding singular verb. The boys run to the swimming pool. Boys is the subject. Its plural. More than one boy. Run is the corresponding plural verb. Strategy Tip: When reading any sentence on the exam, try to think about the meaning of the sentence first. Visualize the sentence as a scene. This will often help you get the big picture and find the best answer.

B. Numbers, Names, Percents, and Portions

Dont get confused when numbers are involved. Most of the time itll be obvious like Five boys run down the street. But when a number is being referred to as a value, then its singular. See example below: 3,128 is the number of students enrolled in Woodbury High School Basically this sentence is saying that the number is 3,128. Number is the subject. Names of things like books or movies will make you want to say its plural, but its not. Its still one book you are talking about. See example below:

5,000 Pennies is a good book.

Percents and portions are ones that require context. If you are referring to a percent or portion of one thing, then its going to be singular. But if you are referring to a percent or portion of many individually countable items, then its plural. See examples below: Fifty percent of the building remains standing after the earthquake. Half of the buildings in the city remain standing after the earthquake. The first sentence is saying that 50% of this one building is left standing, while the second one is saying that half of all the buildings, many of them, are still standing. So that means more than two buildings are standing, and hence, plural.
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C. Compound
Compound subjects can be a little more confusing, but they also follow some sort of logic as well. And there are several types of compound ones. You got ones joined by and , either/or , neither/nor Nouns or pronouns joined by and will be plural 99% of the time. This is because you are referring to both, making the subject become at least two of something. See examples below: John and Rachel walk to school. Whats the subject? John and Rachel, two people, so its plural. The corresponding plural verb is walk. Remember I told you that this is true 99% of the time? Heres an exception thats part of the 1% that you might see on the test. Milk and cookies is my favorite snack. Its milk AND cookies, but Im using is. Thats because milk and cookies is being looked as one unit. How can you tell? Because its referred to as my favorite snack. Singular. Its like looking at a combo meal at fast food joint. Then you have either/or , neither/nor. These all have the same rules. You make the verb agree with the subject that is closer to the verb. However, as a general rule, if you have both a plural subject and a singular subjected joined by either/or , neither/nor put the plural subject second and make the verb agree with that plural subject. Lets look at some examples and well talk about each one: Jack or Jill walks up the hill on Mondays. Either Jack or Jill reports the daily news on channel 10. Neither the teacher nor the students know the winner from yesterdays contest. Either Mr. Smith or the boys carry the equipment. So, in all situations involving either/or, neither/nor the verb agrees with the subject that is closest to the verb.

D. Placement
Sometimes the order of subject and verb can be mixed up or switched around, so dont be fooled. See these examples. In the classroom stands the teacher. In the classroom stand the students.

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The subject of the first sentence is teacher and the verb is stands, singular. The second sentence, the subject is students and the verb is stand, plural. Strategy Tip: Prepositional phrases will not contain the subject of a sentence. Your guard should be up whenever you see a preposition. Strategy Tip: Finding the subject can get confusing when sentences get longer. Try to strip away all the unessential parts of the sentence and get to the core meaning of the sentence.

E. Too Many Surrounding Words

Things get confusing again when you have words that surround the subject or come between the subject and verb. But the two strategy tips from above help you through tricky situations. See the examples below: The football team, including the cheerleaders, has a large fan base. The CEO, along with his staff members, presents at the annual conference. Again, notice that you have prepositions, like including and along with that should alert you that this is not part of the subject

F. Indefinite Pronouns
Some words confuse people a lot, such as everyone, someone, nobody, some, any, etc. So, to make this easier, heres a chart that should help you as a quick reference Always Singular Each Either/Neither Ones anyone, no one, someone, everyone Bodies anybody, nobody, somebody, everybody Always Plural Many Both Few Several Depends Any None Some All

Most Each of the students brings his or her own pencil to the exam. Everybody is attending the ceremony. Few of the students are attending the ceremony.

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Most of my hand is numb. Most of my fingers are numb. So, when you are dealing with the depends category, you need to use a little bit of logic. Most of a singular object (like hand) cant be plural, and when youre talking about most of plural objects (like fingers), then youre obviously talking about more than one.

F. Group References
Most of the time when you are referring to a whole group as a unit, its going to be singular. But sometimes, it will be plural if its referring to the actions of each individual within the group. Lets look at some examples: The platoon marches to the meeting point. The platoon march to their meeting points. Whats the difference here? In the first sentence the whole platoon is marching to the same place, as one group. Singular. In the second sentence, the platoon members are each going to a different location, so youre talking about many individuals. Plural. The hint is in the rest of the sentence because it says their meeting points. The Four Seasons Hotels is releasing a press report this morning. The New York Yankees are playing tonight. Names of companies and other organizations are treated as singular subjects, but sports teams are treated as plural subjects.

G. Actions as Subjects
What Im talking about here is when the subject is a verb most often in the gerund form, the ing form and there are lots of surrounding words that can confuse you. Lets look at some examples: Running between the trees is very difficult when there is too much fog. Isolation of the joints and muscles is an important technique for dancers. Some of us might get tempted to say are very difficult because we see the word trees. However, you have to think about the meaning of the sentence. Were talking about the act of running, and it happens to be in the context of between the trees. It doesnt always have to be in the gerund form. In the second sentence, the act of isolating, or isolation, is the subject. Logically speaking, joints and muscles are not techniques, so thats another way to do a spot check.

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